Kaiser
by Caltrop
Summary: In Manhattan, there are pokémon battles more dangerous than what typical children partake in. The winning pokémon gets to keep both the money earned and their life (for the time being). With the constant death of friends, the numerous attempts of Pokémon Activists to overthrow the system, and the ceaseless street violence, life is anything but ideal for the poor folk.
1. New York City

_ Kaiser _

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon nor any characters pertaining to it. Credit goes to Game Freak, Nintendo.  
However, all fictional characters and their designs in this story (excluding what they are based off of) are owned by fellow writers and I.  
**

******Reviews & critiques are always appreciated!**

**Contains excessive violence, language, venereal themes, and adult themes that may seem offensive to certain people.**

**-Character designs, respectively credited-  
Elliot -_ Twin Hearts of Fire and Ice_  
Julie - _zombicidal-maniac  
_****Graham & Lilynette_ - Gigolo Von Spicypants  
_Imara_ - ScaledWolf  
_Shiro_ - Jaylyn 13  
_Nero & Kaz_ - KenTheAuraGuardian  
_Kiro & Shilo_ - Jestie Uchiha_**

**Special thanks to _XStrawberryDuckFeathersX_ for beta-reading_  
_**

* * *

**∴ i ∴  
********New York City**

_~6:30 PM, Wednesday, August  
_

That brief wave of overwhelming nausea had come again, just like it had always done so before every fight. A young man wearing a black coat stood by himself in a large alleyway, separate from the two dense crowds of city folk that trapped him on either side. He clutched his stomach, struggling to keep from collapsing as the crowd roared and cheered. He regained stability and clenched his fists together, a grave expression taking over his face, that same trademark look that he was known to wear most of the time.

The man wiped away the sweat that had accumulated on his face during his anxiety attack. His black, coarse hair was fairly short. Thin strands of gelled hair hung limply over his forehead like bangs. The lower half of his face was spotted with a dark 'five o'clock shadow', of which he had neglected to groom. His body was thin and in fit shape. Apart from the beard, he was an overall cleanly guy, unlike the rest of the typical entrans and fans who inhabited downtown Manhattan. His cold, blue eyes stared down his opponent, who stood at the other side of the alley, returning the glare. An open circle detached the two parties of fans from each other. This circle was colloquially deemed the 'rink' and was where all the athlifends took place. The two entrans, their fighters, the judge, and the bet-taker were only allowed in the rink during fights.

"Keep calm, folks," the judge ordered, trying to the best of his ability to keep the crowds from rushing into the circle. "It's time," he notified the bet-taker. He positioned himself in the middle of the rink and beamed at the fans. "Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, I shall announce the entrans and their fighters!" The judge received a blaring applaud from the crowds. He extended his arm towards his left and pointed at the man with the black coat. "Coscrown and his scyther!" The crowd boomed. The judge then extended his other arm towards the opposing forces. "Kenly and his electrike! The reward will be one hundred. As for the fellow fans, the bet-taker will be coming around and accepting bids. As usual, if the one you route for is the winner, your bid will be doubled."

The bet-taker weaved throughout the crowd, gleaning money in two top hats, one for Coscrown's bids and the other for Kenly's bids. Mr. Coscrown used the short break to give his fighter a last second pep talk.

"Listen, Kai," he rested his hands on the scyther's shoulders. "You may have a disadvantage out there, regarding your type, but I've known you for long enough to know that you won't go down easily, especially to an amateur, _unevolved_ opponent. Do your best and I'm sure you'll be fine."

The scyther simply nodded and turned from his trainer, readying himself for the fight. His long, scythe-like arms clawed at the concrete ground, eager to feel the familiar sensation of cutting through the skins and bones of his competition. The green scales that coated his body glistened in the red sunlight that barely reached the confines of the alleyway. He wore the same solemn look that his entran did.

The bet-taker returned to the judge and presented him with the hats.

"Excellent!" exclaimed the judge as he made his way to the edge of the rink. "Ladies and gentlemen, the athlifend will begin in thirty seconds. Competitors, use this final opportunity to prepare yourselves."

Mr. Coscrown stared blankly at his fighter's opponent: the electrike. It sat next to its trainer with a proud smirk on its face. Its beady eyes were affixed on Kai. Coscrown then averted his eyes from the small Electric-type to the hats that were held by the bet-taker. The hat labeled '_Kenly_' was practically overflowing with money, whereas the hat labeled '_Coscrown_' had money barely exceeding the rim of it. He fell into a trance, his expressionless eyes glued onto the hats.

**Athlifend** _verb_ from Latin athli "_prize_" + fend "_to strike_"  
- The competitions of which two or more trainers use their pokémon to fight in an unorganized and unethical manner for money, usually to the death. **Athlifends** are dangerous in that they often incite riots and end in shambles among watchers, and in that they are highly frowned upon by the law.  
_Source: James A. Melwether, Colloquial Speech of Sub-Government, New York City._

Mr. Coscrown's trance was soon interrupted by the familiar metallic cling of the bell and the yelling of his opponent.

"Mav, use Spark!"

A jolt of electricity seized Kai directly, sending him back and into the brick wall behind. The thin wings protruding from his back beat rapidly as he tried his best to endure the uncomfortable flow coursing through his body. He glanced at Coscrown, waiting for him to give a command.

Kai's trainer cleared his throat and ordered, "Kai, Double Team."

The scyther obeyed. In a split second, nearly ten extra Kais were produced from thin air and were all surrounding the electrike.

"Swords Dance."

The multiple scythers simultaneously shut their eyes and crossed their scythes in front of them, as if they were partaking in some sort of meditation ritual.

"Mav, use Discharge!" the opponent cried.

The electrike grinned and generated a wave of lightning that spread out in all directions. It directly hit all of Kai's copies, causing them to feign death and disappear, rendering the whole Double Team move useless. The real Kai was left standing, _barely_. He toppled to his knees, feeling the electricity take over his scales and bones. The electrike approached him, a smug expression smeared across its face.

"No disadvantage's going to bring Kai down," Coscrown confirmed with himself. "Toxic!"

"Strength!"

The green and yellow canine charged towards Kai, bowing its head. Kai got to his feet and swiftly moved to the side. As the electrike passed by, he slid the edge of his scythe down the side of its body. It came to a halt and turned around to face the unharmed scyther. It examined its wound, a small, minor cut in its flesh. It then averted its glance back to Kai. Its vision was suddenly obscured. The scyther who stood before it became a blurry blotch of color, as did the rest of the landscape. It shook its head frantically, trying to regain its vision and retain its consciousness. It charged at Kai, who dodged it with ease.

An audible growl of frustration was heard from Mr. Kenly. Hearing this, Coscrown smiled slightly.

"Kai, Sword Dance."

The scyther positioned himself like he had done before, with his scythes crossed and his eyes closed.

"Discharge, Mav!"

The electrike stumbled around, trying to locate its opponent. The cheers from the crowd disturbed its concentration and made its head ache. Finally, it found the green blur that was Kai. It began to summon the same electrical wave as it had summoned before, but before it could attack...

"Razor Wind."

A silver light glazed over Kai's now open eyes as he threw his scythes up, gathering every bit of energy in him for his attack. Behind him, a storm of metallic wires appeared from the air and were suspended there momentarily. The electrike took in the sight; the sunlight bounced off the wires as more and more of them formed from thin air, though it was all a picturesque blur to the canine. Kai threw his scythes down and guided the wires forward. They sped past Kai and towards the electrike.

The small pokémon was forced into the air, trying to brace itself as best it could, but in vain. The lower half of its body cleanly detached itself from its upper half in midair. As the razors flew past, a cloud of red mist was produced from the electrike. The cloud bloomed like a rose and then descended slowly back to the ground after the remains of the electrike had already fallen.

The crowed roared at the site. Some people cheered for Kai, others shook their head furiously because they had just lost their bid.

Kai returned to Coscrown, the edges of his beak bent into a slight smirk.

"It's just too easy for you, isn't it?" his trainer grinned.

"The winners: Coscrown and his scyther!" the elated judge proclaimed.

Mr. Kenly stood in shock. He eventual returned to reality and shook his head in anger. He eyed his fighter, whose body was strewn across the concrete. Then he made his way to Coscrown and presented him with the hundred dollars. "Good fight."

"Thank you."

Mr. Kenly left and disappeared into the crowd, which then dispersed and swarmed throughout the rink, paying no attention to the electrike. A red, two-legged insect emerged from the crowd and leapt at Coscrown, hugging him. The man stumbled backwards a bit, but then returned the hug reluctantly. He stared at Kai, who shrugged, befuddled. The red figure released Coscrown and stood before both of them so they could easily identify it. It was a scizor, the post-evolution form of Kai. It snapped its red, corphish-like claws together joyously.

"Wow," the scizor's voice bellowed inside Coscrown's head. "Roy Coscrown, it is such an honor to be in your presence." Its voice was graceful and soothing. Judging by the sound of its voice, it was a female.

"You – you're," Coscrown stuttered, his eyes wide.

"Mr. Coscrown, is this the... What is it? Forty-somethingth time you've won?" She turned to Kai. "Oh... And of course, let's not forget Kaiser. I don't know anyone else who has actually managed to survive forty-something battles."

"How are you talking?" asked the man. "Scizor can't use telepathy, can they?"

"I'm an exception, because I'm special," the scizor chuckled. "I trust that I will be seeing you both at the County Biathlon?"

"You'll be competing?" Kai spoke up.

The scizor ceased using telepathy and communicated with Kai using her normal language. "Yes, my trainer is here somewhere."

"So we might be fighting each other?"

"I can only hope so. Fighting you would be the greatest thing I would ever experience." The scizor blinked passively at Kai.

"...You're crazy!" Kai retreated against the wall of the alley. "We shouldn't be talking."

"I'm sorry, Ms. Scizor," Coscrown interjected. "We'll be on our way, now." With that, Coscrown lead Kai out of the alleyway and into the main street. "Scizor shouldn't be able to use telepathy," he mused. "Hey, Kai, what were you two talking about? She seemed to take a lot of interest in you."

Kai simply shook his head. He shivered as he imagined his fan before him on her knees, willingly awaiting her execution during the Biathlon.

**Biathlon** _noun_ from Latin bi "_two_"  
- An annual and highly official event where high ranked athlifenders fight in a tournament for a prize especially greater than what is achieved at a regular athlifend. _See also: Athlifend._  
_Source: James A. Melwether, Colloquial Speech of Sub-Government, New York City._

* * *

**No longer accepting OCs.**


	2. Windows

**∴ ii ∴  
****Windows**

_~2:00 PM, September_

Mr. Coscrown sat on the velvet living room sofa, eyeing a piece of paper in his hands. He flipped it over, reading the other side, then flipped it back, rereading the front. His apathetic expression showed no signs of interest for the paper. However, he was angry. He concealed his emotions though, and crumpled up the paper. He tossed it across the room at the garbage can. The paper landed a few inches away from its base. Coscrown grumbled to himself and lay back against the sofa.

Kai gazed at his trainer from where he stood, by the window. "What was that?" he questioned.

Coscrown looked at him, raising his brows. "Hm? What is it, Kai? Do you want to know what the paper was?"

Kai responded with a nod.

"It was the cable bill. Nothing special. I don't watch television anyway."

"What about your internet?"

The man chuckled and scratched his head. "I don't... know what you said, Kai."

The Scyther turned back to the window. He scanned the skyline of Brooklyn, just as he had always done so in his spare time. He could see all the people, the cars, the venders, the commotions, and the disasters that took place on the streets below with his acute sense of sight. Coscrown's apartment was on the 28th floor of the building. The building itself was located in Downtown Brooklyn and was called '_The Crown of Brooklyn_', since it was overall one of the tallest apartment buildings in the borough. Coscrown's condo was considerably large for a cheap, luxury-ridden building. It was an airy loft with plenty of windows overlooking the borough. The loft faced the west, so the entire living room was lit up and hued red and orange during every single sunset. The sun's rays would shine vibrantly through the windows. At every chip in the glass though, the rays would deflect off the cracks and form artistic and kaleidoscopic patterns among the room's walls.

Kai would wait patiently every day, anticipating dusk. He thought the living room, with its cliché Brooklyn decor atop the wooden, inlaid parquet flooring, during sunset was the most beautiful place in the world. His trainer thought otherwise, but they put their differences aside them. Coscrown said something about Victoria Falls being the most beautiful place in the world, that and some place in Canada called the Bay of Fundi and some chain of islands called the British Virgin Aisles. Kai didn't know what any of those places were, really. He was hatched on Fire Island. He lived there for around ten years until he finally gathered enough courage to fly across the strait and to the mainland that is Long Island. He then lived there until present day; he hasn't left the state of New York, not once.

Every day Kai would wait for the sunset. Alas, because of his new fighting 'occupation', his entran would usually take him to Manhattan around 5:00 to participate in yet another abruptly planned athlifend. These fights didn't happen _every_ day, though. When it rained they would usually be canceled, but then the rain clouds would block out the sun, so Kai would spend the rest of the day in a gloomy apartment, spiritless and blasé. Well, at least he wasn't fighting to the death.

**Entran** _noun_ from Latin en "_in_" + traho "_to drag_"  
- The consultant or trainer of a specific pokémon (**entranee**) competing in an athlifend. _See also: Athlifend.__  
Source: James A. Melwether, Colloquial Speech of Subgovernment, New York City._

Why Coscrown refused to pay his bills bewildered Kai. Coscrown had more than enough money to buy an entirely new house, let alone pay a small bill. The reason Coscrown and Kai were so successful was that Kai, being a Scyther, was a high class pokémon in the whole athlifend sub-government organization. The sub-government ranked pokémon by what they consider 'elegance', a completely biased yet somewhat humorous unit of measurement that deciphers what pokémon are to be seen the most often during athlifend events. Pokémon with little to no elegance were the most often seen during fights. Electrike and other dominant species were categorized as ones with little to no elegance. Then there were pokémon that were considerably elegant, such as Kai. After that came the extremely elegant pokémon, the rarer ones, such as charmander, riolu, et cetera. Shiny pokémon also fit into this category. Last but not least, there were the legendaries. These were the rarest and were the most elegant. No one had ever entered a legendary pokémon into an athlifend. If they had, they'd be wealthy beyond belief. However, no one had ever caught a legendary, for it was extremely hard to catch them. Besides, the government wasn't too fond of the idea of a citizen riding on the back of lugia as it devastates the lands with its tremendous powers.

The reason this unit system was totally biased was because apparently, according to the sub-government, pokémon that were rarer than others were also stronger in comparison. Sure, Kai was strong, but that's because he was taught well and his species was just strong in general. If a manectric went up against Kai, Kai could lose, surely. Rarity does not equal ability. A shiny ratatta is just as strong as a regular one, so why classify them differently?

"Fucking language barriers," Coscrown muttered. "Kai, maybe you should try to learn telepathy, like the Scizor."

"Yep."

"Hey, what did you think of her, anyway? You think you'll see her again? She seemed friendly, did she not?"

"Do you want me to get together with her?" Kai tore his gaze from the window and looked incredulously at his trainer.

"I wonder if she ever competed in any athlifends. I doubt it, she looked like a normal, spectator fanatic."

"No," Kai sighed. "I might have to fight her during the County Biathlon."

"Why the long face?" Coscrown grew concerned. "What did you two talk about the other day? _Do you _have to fight her?"

The Scyther nodded forlornly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Kai. When are we going to fight her?"

"We're fighting her during the Biathlon, not any of the individual, unofficial battles."

Coscrown shook his head slowly. "Scy-scy-scy-scy-scy. That's all I hear from you." He grabbed his laptop from the coffee table and rested it on his lap. "I'll just check the calendar, then." He eventually located his personal athlifend schedule. Upon closer examination, he tilted his head backwards in surprise. "Huh, they've updated the list ahead of time. Looks like we have a battle every day until the Biathlon begins."

Kai groaned and returned to his city watch.

"We have to leave at five o'clock. You're going to be versing a teddiursa. Piece of cake. 'Says this guy's won four battles with his teddiursa. Not bad. But, Kai, I don't see anything about a Scizor here. I see a beedrill, a zigzagoon, a metapod, but nothing about a..." his voice trailed off. He looked at Kai unsteadily. "Unless, you're versing her during the Biathlon?"

Kai nodded his head in confirmation without averting his gaze from the window.

"Oh. Well, then you may not be versing her at all."

"Whatever."

The rest of the day proceeded like any other typical, unideal day would. Kai finished off the helpless teddiursa, ending its small reign of consecutive wins. The two collected their prize and left. There were no signs of the scizor. She had not been seen at all recently, in fact. Perhaps she had died in a previous athlifend.

"That battle lasted a while, didn't it?" Mr. Coscrown said as he played with the buttons on his black coat. "Are you going to go do your thing? Because I want to go home."

Kai responded positively, grinning.

"Okay, I'll see you whenever, I guess. Enjoy roaming the streets, Guy." Coscrown then left his scyther and walked to the nearest subway station. He walked down the stairs and traveled through the white tiled corridors that lead to the train. He boarded the tube and sat down on one of the blue, plastic seats. The tube was particular quiet for that hour. It sped underneath the streets of Manhattan. Three stops later, a hooded figure boarded the train and sat next to Coscrown.

The man looked at the figure timidly. The figure wore a light grey sweatshirt that was zippered up to its chest. The sweatshirt's hood engulfed the figures head and kept most of its facial features concealed. What really unnerved Coscrown about the figure was that it wasn't human. It wasn't human at all. It was a humanoid, yes, but definitely not a human. Below the sweatshirt was the uncovered blue fur of the pokémon's thighs and its black, slender legs. Its long, blue tail rested across the plastic seats of the train. At the chest of the sweatshirt where the zippers separated from each other was a metal, yet organic cone. Two other lustrous cones protruded from the wrists of its blue and black arms. Its blue and black snout extruded from the brim of the hood. It sniffed the air passively.

'Why sit next to me when the entire train is empty?' Coscrown thought.

Suddenly, the creature spoke up. Its masculine voice reverberating throughout Coscrown's head, it spat, "Good evening, Royco Coscrown." It stared directly forward, keeping its face from Coscrown's vision. "Are you excited for the County Biathlon? Because I am."


	3. Ready, Able

**∴ iii ∴  
Ready, Able**

___~8:00 PM, September_

Mr. Coscrown turned his head towards the hooded being and gawked at it in awe. All fell silent, except for the clunking noises emitting from the tracks below. The florescent bulbs above flickered slightly with every clunk of the train, which somewhat added to the tension in the cart. Coscrown stirred uncomfortably in his seat. "Who are you?" he asked shakily.

"I want to talk to you about something, Royco," the figure announced in his raspy, telepathic articulation, ignoring Coscrown's question. "Actually, I want to talk to you about your scyther."

Coscrown slowly shifted into the next seat, trying to evade the mysterious character. "Are you... a lu-lu—"

"Why are you acting so timorous?"

"Well you just—"

The figure cocked his head slightly towards Coscrown, although not enough to reveal his facial features. "You don't need to be afraid of me. Not yet." The figure's tail was in the air, swaying around erratically. "Anyway... so I heard you just won your 50th athlifend. Congratulations." The figure casually leaned back against the plastic seats and threw his right leg over his left, exposing the pink calluses that grew from the black fur on the soles of his feet. His visible snout inhaled the surrounding air. "These subway stations, they all smell like shit," he observed.

"How do you know all this information about me? My name, my-my entranee's name..."

"You and Kaiser, if you haven't noticed already, have a pretty well-known reputation among the sub-government. How modest you must be to not even be aware of your own prestige," the figure stated with admiration. "Allow me to enlighten you. Not only are you famous because you're one of the only few athlifenders who has ever won fifty battles using the same intact pokémon, but your pokémon is..." The figure paused mid-sentence to chuckle to himself. "...fairly elegant," he continued. "You don't see a high-class scyther being forced to fight out on the streets every day."

"Now you listen to me," Coscrown ordered. "Kai is my friend and I wouldn't ever force him to do something, especially not compete in any to-the-death battles. It was ___his _idea. And you're not ___enlightening _me at all, you little punk. I know damn well that I am well-known around Manhattan. Now what did you want to talk to me about? What do _you _know about Kai?"

The figure was taken aback by Coscrown's sudden outburst. He relaxed again and laughed. "What do you mean 'it was his idea'? Did he insist you train him? Because normally scyther don't speak English. Mr. Coscrown, you've known Kaiser for five – nearly six years now, yes?"

"Jesus Christ," was all the man could say. He wiped his damp face, ruminating about how this character, whom he had never met before, knew so much about him.

The figure sensed his uneasiness and spoke up. "Don't be alarmed, Royco. I'm not trying to give the impression that I'm a stalker or anything, but I have, however, been studying you for a very long time. Your face is all over the internet. You take the same route from Manhattan to Brooklyn every day. In addition to that, you're a very open person; I can read you like a book. After all, my species is quite adept when it comes to assessing one's aura.

"Anyway, back to Kaiser: You've known him for a long time, and only recently did you start entering him in the athlifends, correct?"

"I had to gain money somehow," Coscrown sighed.

"There are plenty of other ways to make money. Now, from what I've learned from participating in the athlifend organization, people normally use pokémon that they recently find, pokémon they buy from the black market, correct? So, Mr. Coscrown, why would you risk the life of your very good friend just for money?"

"Well he insisted—"

"I want you to do me a favor. When you get home, check your schedule." The figure suddenly turned towards Coscrown. Two red, menacing eyes illuminated within the depths of the hood. They squinted at Coscrown, who glared back. "Then... ask yourself one question. Do you really want to lose your best friend?" The figure stood as the tube came to a halt. The automatic doors slid open, allowing the figure to pass through.

Coscrown sat quietly, trying to contemplate what had just happened.

___~10:30 PM_

A scratching noise was heard coming from the front door of the loft. Coscrown opened the door without bothering to look through its eyelet. He welcomed Kai into his home. "How was it? Where did you go?"

"Time Square."

"Oh! Sounds fascinating," the man replied sarcastically. "Never heard of a place called 'Scy-thaa' before."

"Okay, Roy. We all know how much you hate our communication barriers, but you don't need to give me an attitude."

"My evening was... interesting. Thanks for asking. I got on the subway and this weird stranger in a hoodie sat next to me and started talking to me... Ah, it's not important. Want any food?"

Kai shook his head.

"You better go to bed. You've got a big day tomorrow. You're up against a tropius. Should be easy for you, but it's a pretty big pokémon so you better be prepared."

"Are we battling in the indoor gym?"

"If you're asking about the gym, then yes, we are fighting in the gym. _Obviously _we are fighting in the gym. You can't fit a tropius in an alleyway."

Kai grinned and made for his bedroom. He stopped at his door and looked over his shoulder at his trainer. Coscrown was nice enough to willingly give his pokémon the guest room. Unlike other entrans, Coscrown refused to force Kai into his designated pokéball. He treated Kai with respect as if he were a human. Ever since the two of them had started participating in the fights, their relationship hadn't been altered in any way. "Hey, Roy," Kai said sheepishly. "Thank you for all you have done."

"M-hm," the man uttered in response as he positioned himself on the couch. Kai pushed open his door and pushed it back into place. It was a swinging door, one that didn't have a knob on it. Five and a half years ago, Coscrown had replaced the guest room door with one that didn't require opposable thumbs to open.

Basically, Kai wasn't his pokémon, he was his best friend.

Coscrown stared blankly at Kai's door for a moment, wondering to himself. There have been some close calls in the past where Kai had nearly died. He could recall at least five times when their battles would end with Kai barely standing, spitting up vomit and tearing loose-hanging scales off of his worn body. Could Coscrown go any further with this? If his friend were to die, he would have nothing. He'd have _one _human friend: Elliot. He rarely saw Elliot though...

The man's thoughts then traveled elsewhere. He thought about the hooded figure from the tube. He rubbed the stubble on his chin and then opened his laptop. He hesitated briefly before entering the web browser and locating his schedule. He scanned through his upcoming competitions. It wasn't often that the athlifend interpersonal organizers would post meets ahead of time on the website; the AIO weren't very orderly when it came to doing their job...

Coscrown read through the names of the entrans and their entranees. "N. Madison," he mumbled to himself. "B. Thompson, G. Rickard, C. Pavlov. Tropius, sentret, yanma. Today is... the 7th. The 8th, the 9th, the 10th, the 11th, the 12th..." he stopped mumbling abruptly as he squinted his eyes, perplexed. Something that he hadn't notice before caught his eye. For the 13th day, the column that labeled the trainer's ID was missing information.

_Name of Entren: N/A_

_ Age (yrs): N/A_

_ DoB: N/A_

_ Location: West Queens_

_ Name of Pokémon: Maximilian_

_ Wins (as of 9/7): 53_

_ Age (yrs): CtKP_

_ DoB: CtKP_

_ Species: Lucario_


	4. The Look

**∴ iv ∴  
The Look**

_~5:30 PM, Monday, September_

Kai ground his scythes against the concrete floor of the gym, preparing for his upcoming battle. He rose his arms up to his face and inspected the tip of the scythes. Satisfied, he relaxed and concentrated on his opponent, who towered over the dense crowds of the gym on the opposite side of the rink. Kai assumed his fighting stance and glared menacingly at the tropius. 'There's no sunlight in here, bud,' Kai thought disdainfully. 'Your Chlorophyl won't do _anything_ for you.'

The indoor gym was once a skateboard park. Leftover blood painted the cement below, its dark color nearly identical to the oxidized, metal beams that held up the poorly tiled, high-vaulted ceiling.

"Kai." Coscrown's voice abruptly broke Kai's concentration. The scyther turned and gazed at his trainer. "Calm down, the battle hasn't started yet," the man advised, glancing at the bet-taker, who was shuffling throughout the crowd collecting bids. "Listen, Guy. If anything happens... I just want to let you know that you've always been my best friend, and I never wanted this to happen; I never wanted to do this to you... To make you fight like this..." His words were sincere and his expression was solemn.

Kai stared blankly at his trainer. Coscrown wasn't usually the expressive type. "Relax," Kai said with a warm smile. "I'll be fine."

The man got the gist of what Kai was saying from his positive response. "Okay, do your best out there."

"Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, I shall announce the entrans and their fighters!" The judged voiced that repetitious sentence like he always did before a battle, as if he were a mindless computer. "Madison and his tropius!" He paused to add a dramatic effect. "...And Coscrown and his scyther!" The crowd cheered and hollered. "Ladies and gentlemen, the athlifend will begin in thirty seconds. Competitors, use this final opportunity to prepare yourselves."

"Let's get this over with," Coscrown murmured.

"What's wrong with you, Roy? What's your problem?"

Coscrown patted the scyther on the back gently, making sure not to damage his wings. He backed away and stood at the edge of the rink, ignoring the obvious concern of his pokémon. Madison, who stood in the opposite semicircle, copied Coscrown's actions, petting the tropius' side and retreating to the safe zone outside the rink. Kai glared at his opponent. The giant, Jurassic entranee stared back. The grave look on its face told Kai that it took no regards of and had no concerns for its type disadvantage. The tropius had one thing on its mind: Crush the scyther's exoskeleton before it uses any Air-type or Bug-type attacks. The size contrast between the two of them could have easily been the deciding factor of who won.

The bell sounded.

"Kai, Double Team."

"Use Body Slam!"

Kai duplicated himself as the tropius instantaneously charged towards its prey. It threw its body at where the real Kai had previously stood. It crashed down on two of Kai's pseudo correspondents, causing their shells to split from the weight. The tropius returned to its feet and looked around, dumbfounded.

"Poison."

The real Kai leapt forwards hastily towards the giant. It slashed at the tropius' leg, leaving a small cut that soon began to foam and fester. Kai, having left his group of copies, was now easily distinguishable from the fakes. Tropius attempted to crush him again. It tumbled forwards, causing Kai to instinctively leap backwards. But Kai's reaction wasn't quick enough. This was proven when the side of the tropius landed barely just on Kai's foot. The roof of his foot collapsed and caved in as it secreted a clear fluid that pooled underneath the sole. He let out a cry of pain and horror.

Coscrown cupped his hand over his mouth and cursed under his breath. He removed his hand and exclaimed, "Quick, X-Scissor!"

Kai frantically slashed at the tropius' side, hoping it would lift up from his crushed foot. The rough skin of the giant split open with ease. It grunted and returned to its feet, freeing Kai, who hobbled backwards to the safety of his clones.

"Use Fly, and then use Energy Ball in the air!"

The tropius cringed in pain, but eventually obeyed its trainer's command. The gigantic leaves that protruded from its back began to beat the air rapidly, blowing dust on the floor in all directions. Its body slowly ascended until the metal beams above didn't allow it to rise any further. A macabre waterfall of blood poured from its cross-shaped wound. Without hesitation, the tropius projected several orbs of green energy towards the group of scyther. Kai stumbled away from the group until he was a safe distance away for the time being. His duplicates melted and dissipated as the orbs exploded around them.

"Kai, Razor Wind..."

Kai raised his scythes and focused. Behind him, thin wires materialized from thin air. He guided the wires up towards the ceiling with his mind. They hit and bounced off the giant, leaving tiny slits in its already battered skin. The Razor Wind didn't affect it very much. However, it rapidly lost strength due to the poison gradually invading more and more of its bloodstream. Its wings could hold it up no longer. It fell to the ground in a heap.

"Get up!" Madison shouted.

"X-Scissor."

Kai hobbled over to the dinosaur-esque creature. As he approached it, scythes at the ready, it lifted its head and stared at Kai helplessly. Madison continued to yell in the background at his pokémon in vain. Kai closed his eyes and mercilessly brought his scythes down upon the tropius' neck. His scythes sloppily lacerated through its tough skin and esophagus. Its head fell back down to the ground.

The crowd roared.

_ ~6:00 PM_

Coscrown sat at a plastic table setup, watching as a kneeling man in a red sweatshirt tended to Kai's crumpled foot. The man had brown, curly hair. He inspected Kai's wound with discerning eyes behind a silver pair of glasses. He wiped the liquids from the foot with a little sanitizing towel and plucked excess exoskeletal shards from the network of light-green veins that were formerly concealed. He then proceeded to practically mummify his foot in a copious amount of bandages.

"That's enough of those bandages!" Kai groaned, tapping his scythes against the floor as if to ease the excruciating pain. An absol lay on the ground not too far from where Kai sat. She chuckled shyly at Kai's misfortune. The man in the red sweatshirt let go of his foot and stood up. Kai let out a sigh of relief as he relaxed and turned his head to the absol. "You find this funny?" he said, smirking.

"No," the pokémon replied, her blatant lie giving Kai the impression that she wasn't the most forthright of pokémon. _Then again_, most absol were like that.

"Damn, what am I going to do tomorrow?"

"You have another athlifend? I'm sure you'll be fine. Your foot is in good hands."

Kai smiled and nodded slightly, making the absol grin as well.

Coscrown observed Kai's bandaged foot while scratching the back of his neck. "Thank you very much for taking your time to fix him, uh – um—"

"Graham," the man said sheepishly. "It's not a problem. I always carry supplies around in case my absol ever gets hurt. Kaiser's foot will eventually regrow its shell. I'd highly recommend that you don't have him fight in any more battles until it fully heals."

"Well, I would, but an athlifend isn't something I can just drop out of."

"Oh, well yes, of course." Graham twiddled his fingers together anxiously. He slowly backed away from Coscrown as if he were in a hurry to leave the gym. "So, I'm guessing I'll be seeing you during the Biathlon?"

"Oh... I didn't know you were doing it. Yes, I guess I'll see you then. Did you enjoy the fight today?"

"Yes, I learned a lot from it," Graham stated as he turned around and walked towards the double doors of the gym. Something told Coscrown that Graham really didn't feel like talking to him. "Come on, Lily."

Lilynette, the absol, stared at Kai, her ecstatic smile had faded into a forlorn frown.

Kai gazed at her impassively. "We-we're going to be fighting?"

"If we're paired up, then yes," Lily answered as she made her way towards her trainer. "See you, Kaiser," she said in a soft voice before she and Graham disappeared out the doors. Kai frowned and looked at the cement floor, letting out a huff.

"Well, we better get going. Time for our long trip home. Do you think you can walk?"

Kai shook his head slowly.

"I'll help you out then. Come on."

Kai stood and leaned against his trainer, who walked him towards the exit. Before they could leave though, a figure burst through the doors and gawked at the pair. It then grinned and clapped its claws together happily. It wore the familiar face of the same pokémon who had embraced Coscrown the other day.

The scizor _was_ still alive.


	5. Tumbling Down

******∴ v ∴  
Tumbling Down**

A lot happened over the course of that September. Some things good, others bad. The month slowly proceeded like all the others, but this one consisted of a peculiarly higher amount of detrimental anomalies and catastrophes. The city would be changed forever from this month onward for both its simple civilians and Royco Coscrown. Coscrown's pokémon, Kai, benefited from these anomalies, however. The distortion and crumpling of others' lives meant that he could safely live for another couple months. In addition to that, Kai also got to know the amiable, yet mysterious scizor more.

_ ~7:00 PM, Monday, September_

"Hi!" the red-shelled creature exclaimed.

"You again," Coscrown said to the scizor in a rather harsh manner, although he didn't mean to seem rude. "The talking scizor. How have you been?"

"I'm good. I'm guessing you won another athlifend? I'm not surprised." She smiled at Kai, who plainly stared at her in return. "Kai, I can't wait to see you next week."

"At the Biathlon?" the scyther uttered, appalled. "Why would you say that? You want to get killed, kid?" He walked past her towards the doors, hoping his trainer would follow. Before he reached the doors though, they flung open and in walked a woman wearing a black sweatshirt who looked to be in her early twenties.

She halted and stared at Kai momentarily, before saying, "Oh, I'm sorry, excuse me!" and getting out of Kai's way so he could exit. He stood in the doorway and watched the woman as she placed her hand on the scizor's shoulder, eyeing Coscrown. "I didn't know _you _were fighting here," she stated in a surprised tone. "I don't think I have ever met you yet, but my scizor and I are both big fans of yours." Her green eyes looked Coscrown up and down intently, assessing the well-known, iconic character who took the athlifend organization by storm within the span of mere months. She extended her hand and smiled. "I'm Julie. It's so nice to finally meet you in person."

Coscrown hesitated before reluctantly accepting her hand. "You've seen me online?"

"Yes, I've watched many videos of you and Kaiser in action, and I must say I am very impressed." She swerved her fingers around her ear, guiding brown, loose-hanging hair from her face.

"And this is your scizor?"

Julie chuckled quietly to herself while looking at the pokémon. "Yes, she is my _scizor_. I hope she hasn't been causing trouble or annoying you two in any way."

The scizor smiled innocently, snapping her claws together, absentminded. However, Coscrown gave her a very suspicious look. He squinted and inspected the pokémon, studying it carefully. Something was definitely off about her, other than the fact that she could speak English.

"Her name is Cinder, if she hasn't told you already," Julie mentioned. "She's always been a _huge _fan of Kaiser's ever since you two started fighting." She sighed drearily, tilting her head towards the concrete below. "It's a shame they may be fighting in the Biathlon together."

"Yes, I heard we might be going against each other. It was a pleasure meeting you, Julie, but Kai and I better get going."

"Oh, okay! See you in a week, Mr. Coscrown." Julie tugged at Cinder, who motioned for her to stop.

Cinder then sidled towards the impatient scyther. "Um, Kai," she mumbled shyly. "We should hang out sometime, before the Biathlon."

Kai glared at her in disbelief. He shook his head, saying, "I refuse to befriend someone who has a ninety-five percent chance of dying by the end of the week."

"Well so do you."

"_Hmph_..."

"You don't have any friends, do you?"

Kai frowned and attempted to retort, but instead he grumbled angrily to himself and left the gym in a huff. He walked down the alley where the gym's main entrance was located in, and became submerged amidst the busy pedestrians, roaming the main streets. Above, the sky was spotted with pink-tinctured clouds amongst the vast, orange sky. Another sunset was lost to the organization. His trainer left the gym shortly afterward, but he did not follow Kai. Instead, he went in the opposite direction down the alley and to the other side of the block, where he then proceeded to the subway station and to the trains.

...Several stops later, the familiar figure boarded the tube and sat next to Coscrown, just as he had done so before. However, this time he didn't have his hood up, which completely erased all doubts that he wasn't a lucario. He looked at the man with red, glaring eyes surrounded by the black, burglar-style mask. His long ears jutted freely above his head, unconstrained by the hood. There was a chip missing from one of the four tendrils that hung from the back of his head, which presumably happened during a battle. His lips curled upwards, forming a visible smile that overtly unsettled Coscrown.

"Did you do me the favor?" he asked.

Coscrown stared bitterly at the lucario. "You're one conceited piece of scum, you know that?" he spat. "What are you, too good for a trainer?"

"Why bother with a trainer?" the lucario chuckled, content in knowing that Coscrown had carried out his favor. "Trainers just bring their pokémon down. Trainers are far more of a pokémon's disadvantage than unfair type pairings for multiple reasons. For example, trainers take time calling out their commands, whereas I, one who acts independently and without having someone think _for _me, would have already killed the pokémon before their trainer could even finish spurting their command. Do you want to know something?" He leaned in closer to Coscrown. "Put an infant human with an infant pokémon. Who would be smarter? The pokémon, of course. Put a mature human with a mature pokémon. Who would be—"

"The human."

"W-er – maybe because of education, but put an uneducated, mature human with a mature pokémon and the pokémon's intelligence would easily exceed that of the human's, because we are born with instincts. Look, the bottom line is that we-are-smarter-than-you. Therefore, we do better independently during battles, and that is why I have slain more than fifty opponents."

"You – you're just a human wannabe," Coscrown laughed. "I mean, look at you... You wear a sweatshirt, for Christ's sake! How did you even get on this subway?"

"A metro card," the lucario replied solemnly, garnering another disdainful laugh from Coscrown. "Listen, Mr. Coscrown, the last thing I would ever want to be is a disgusting human. I wear clothing because I can. I use the subway because I can. I am my own entran because I am an independent being, and I want people to know that. I want people to know that pokémon aren't their slaves, nor are they as dumb as they are usually portrayed."

"Listen, _Maximilian_, I'm going to disregard your previous _threat_ and enter Kai in the Biathlon nonetheless. And I'll show you, I'll prove to you that the skill of the pokémon depends thoroughly on their trainer!" His voice wavered unsteadily, giving the impression that even he doubted his own words.

_~9:00 AM, Tuesday _

Kai gazed out the window of the loft. With a look of concern on his face, he observed the people below, who all seemed to be abnormally distressed.

Coscrown sat on the sofa with his computer on his lap. "What!" he blurted out abruptly, causing Kai to flinch. "That... can't be. That can't be right."

"What?"

"Kai, the AIO... they've canceled the County... Biathlon and all athlifends f-for... two goddamn months!"

Kai went wide-eyed upon hearing this. "Something's wrong," he proclaimed, staring out the window again. Coscrown tried to make sense of the situation for ten minutes, but the website's obscure layout did not avail him in any way. There was no reason stated as to why the sub-government was closing down all athlifends for two months. The jobless people who relied on the athlifends... what were they going to do?

Frantic knocks were heard coming from the front door. Coscrown frowned, got up, and made his way towards the door. He cautiously looked through the eyelet before twisting the knob and letting in a young man with dirty-blond hair tied into a ponytail. The man hobbled towards the sofa, where he collapsed in a heap. He rubbed his damp face, staring in front of him anxiously.

"Elliot?" Coscrown sat next to his friend. "What happened?" he asked apprehensively. Elliot rarely expressed himself in such manners and was a fairly apathetic person. His unusual change in personality raised tension among Coscrown and Kai.

Elliot stared at Coscrown, aporetic. "You d-don't know what has just happened?" His strained voice afflicted and stymied him from articulating clearly. "Oh... right. You don't have cable..." He buried his face in his hands, breathing heavily.

"What happened? Tell me, Elliot!"

"They've collapsed, Roy..."

"Collapsed? Who – what has collapsed?"

"...My fiancée, she-she was late for work today, but I can't get a hold of her... Roy, please, I didn't know where else to go. You have to help me, she won't pick up her phone!"

Coscrown stared blankly at Elliot, not knowing what to do or even what had just taken place. Whatever had happened, it was bad.

...Elliot was never really the same after the day he lost his fiancée. He still wore his stoic expression for the majority of the time, but he was never really the same on the inside.

_ ~2:15 PM, Sunday_

Coscrown sat with Elliot on the outdoor patio of a cafe. The street was busy with citizens, as usual. The two had been spending a lot more time together recently, since Coscrown's schedule had been unexpectedly cleared up.

"So, I've been thinking," Elliot began, pausing to take a sip of his coffee. "...maybe I should try to... compete in the athlifends."

"What? I thought you hated the idea of having pokémon kill each other."

Elliot scratched at the untrimmed stubble that had grown from his chin in contemplation. It wasn't normal for him to be so unhygienic. "Well, don't _you _hate the idea?"

"Yes, of course I do – but I do it because I need money."

"Exactly. After I quit my job, my fiancée was the one who made money."

"Always making others do the work for you, huh?" Coscrown laughed.

"No, no, it's not like that."

"No, I understand, Elliot. I'm glad you want to do this, actually. I don't have a lot of friends who compete with me in the organization. I don't have _any _friends, in fact. Later today, how 'bout we go to the black market? You have any pokémon in mind?"

"Yeah, genesect," Elliot replied with a straight face. "I don't really care as to what pokémon I want. Something tough, of course, and something that won't make me lose all my money. Something that I won't grow so attached to before it dies at my hands."

Coscrown caught on to his friend's attempt at subliminally criticizing him. He bowed his head in shame and looked at the bottom of his coffee cup for several moments before saying, "Well, he gets one and a half more months to live."

"That's sick, Roy. Just stop before you regret it. When you come with me to the black market, why don't you get yourself a new pokémon?"

"Because it won't be as good as Kai." Basically, what this meant was that Coscrown had succumbed to the biased systems of the sub-government which had implemented the very measurement of 'elegance'.


	6. Neighborhood 1 (Tunnels)

**∴ vi ∴  
Neighborhood 1 (Tunnels)**

_ ~4:00 PM, Sunday, September_

Black markets were fairly common among Downtown Manhattan. Most of which, though, were markets selling various produce, music, or trinkets. One market stood out from the rest, however. The Pokémon Black Market was located within the vast interior of an abandoned subway station. Long passages connected stairways to the heart of the station. They reeked of putrid decease like a conduit of sewage. Upon entering the heart, one was greeted with the disheartening scene of helpless pokémon stuffed into cages, lined up in rows like hostages lined against a wall, awaiting their execution. They clawed at the grates of the cages hopelessly. Some of them wanted to be adopted. Some of them would rather kill and be killed than stay within the confines of the bleak, wretched market.

The station was flooded with poor folk, browsing through the different types of pokémon. Amid the crowd were Coscrown and his friend, looking particularly well-groomed in contrast to the rest of the browsers.

"So, you don't have _any_ specific pokémon in mind?" Coscrown inquired, stroking his short, black beard that had developed during the month.

"It's not like I'm choosing a friend, here," Elliot replied solemnly. "Whichever pokémon I _do_ buy, it'll most likely die within the first athlifend I participate in. I've never trained anything before..."

Coscrown was always entertained by how morbidly blatant Elliot could be. He chuckled, saying, "You're going to want to pick out a strong pokémon, of course."

"What about that ninetales?"

"Yeah... Ninetales are usually pretty strong. Being associated with the organization for several months, I have a pretty good idea of what are strong and what are-_wuh_—" He stumbled backwards away from the woman he had just bumped into. "I'm sorry, Miss."

The woman stared blankly at Coscrown and Elliot. She stood still, seemingly unharmed. She wore a grey button-up shirt and glasses. Her hair was bundled up, giving her the appearance of a strict school teacher or a business woman. She judged the two men by the semi-smart attire they were dressed in. "Ah, you must be... I forgot your name," she spoke in a hushed voice. "Actually, I don't think I've met you before. You must be new. No matter, help me with the cages, will you?" She slunk around one of the cages that bordered the aisles. Inside the cage, a ninetales retreated to her corner and gawked at the woman in terror. "Where are the rest?" The woman glanced around the crowded market.

Coscrown stepped forth. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Okay, everyone is in position," she stated, pulling from the inside of her shirt a pair of hefty pliers. Shoppers walked by, staring at the woman's pliers curiously.

A stout, grey-haired man approached the woman. "What are you doing, selling _my _pokémon?" he spat, obviously exasperated. "You are not entitled to be back here."

A low-pitch ping droned from the woman's hip, where a small device hung from her belt. Thereafter, the station was full of boisterous commotion. Men and women in suits, scattered around the station in various locations, simultaneously cut through the locks of their designated cages. The ninetales burst through the cage's door and tumbled over the woman's foot. Frightened, it regained its footing and changed directions. After leaping over its cage, it halted in front of Coscrown and Elliot, who were looking around frantically, puzzled. Once again, the fox pokémon turned around and bounded over the cage. It evaded the woman's legs and proceeded to leap over several other rows of cages before it reached the gap of the train tracks, where it leapt down and disappeared into the tunnel.

The stout man seized the woman by her hair before she was able to successfully unlock another cage. He violently yanked her to the floor as he called other shopkeepers for their help. The rest of the shopkeepers were too busy dealing with their own loose pokémon to avail the stout man.

The poor folk screamed and ran aimlessly in a state of discombobulation as pokémon did the same. Some pokémon disappeared into the railway tunnel, like the ninetales had. Others went for the exit of the station, but were greeted by the gun-wielding guards who tended to the black market. They raised their pistols, hatred in their eyes, aiming for the people in the business suits. Shots were fired, followed by horrified shrieks and gasps.

"Roy..." Elliot grabbed Coscrown by his jacket's collar and lead him away from the commotion, towards the railway tunnel. They hopped down onto the unfrequented, inactive rails and fled into the tunnel. "Jesus Christ, Roy, this is exactly why I never wanted to get involved with the organization."

"You get used to it."

Their whispers echoed throughout the tunnel, disturbing the zubats that hung overhead.

"Let's walk to the next station and get out from there."

"That's too dangerous," Coscrown argued, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his Nokia. "This route merges with an active route up ahead. Once we enter that route, even if we manage to avoid touching the live rails, we could still get hit by a train. I think we should just wait here."

"Then the police will show up, though. We'll be hiding down here forever, Roy."

"Damn." Coscrown turned his phone on and, using what little light it produced, lit up the ground before him. "All those pokémon are going to die."

"Come on, we have to go."

Coscrown finally complied and proceeded deeper into the tunnel, using his phone's light to guide him forward. As the fluorescence of the black market gradually vanished in the distance, so did the uproar. The two quietly crept further and further along the tunnel. Fifteen minutes passed. Suddenly, the familiar roar of a train was heard in the distance. Then, just ahead of them, the walls of the tunnel were light up. It was clear to them that they had reached the integration of routes. Standing on all fours in the light, surrounded by the motionless corpses of several other pokémon, was the ninetales. It stared right into the light, its tails lowered in fear. It attempted to move to the side, but it stopped as it remembered the metal rails, and how they had killed the other pokémon upon contact.

Elliot ran past Coscrown and towards the creature.

"Elliot, stop!"

The man grabbed the ninetales and pulled it away from the oncoming train. His foot caught on one of the corpses. He collapsed to the ground, along with the pokémon just as the train rushed by, barely clipping the sole of Elliot's shoe. The corpses were noisily ground up underneath the wheels and spat out to the sides.

"You idiot!"

"I had to," Elliot panted, embarrassed. He stood up and set the ninetales down. She stood, quivering, staring into the darkness at nothing in particular. She refused to move or give any signs that she was alright. Perhaps she had been electrocuted from the tracks and had survived, or perhaps she was just paralyzed from the prior events – or both. Elliot turned to watch as the train's last cart flew by and slowly faded into the abyss. "First day of being an athlifender," he sighed. All was quiet, save for the profuse wheezes of the ninetales.

Coscrown turned off his phone and breathed in, taking in the darkness and allowing it to consume him in retaliation.

"Ever wonder what our lives would be like if he had gone to college?" Elliot wondered.

"We can still go. It's not like we were high school dropouts."

"Face it, Roy. You won't go to college."

"I don't want to."

"Exactly."

Coscrown let out a sigh that bellowed throughout the tunnel. "Should we keep moving?"

"Yes." Elliot once again grabbed the pokémon and hoisted her up. He followed Coscrown, whose guiding light was once again turned on and aimed forward, down the new tunnel. They were extremely cautious as they went along the route, minding the rails despite the protection their shoes offered them.

The pokémon, cradled in Elliot's arms, did not stir. She hung there, unable to move and unable to comprehend what had happened. She couldn't see anything, and for a moment she had thought the train's lights had blinded her. She then twisted her head upwards and was met by the dark outline that was Elliot's face. Elliot gazed down at her sternly. The pokémon quickly drooped her head and resumed staring into the void.

More than four minutes passed by. A green light was gradually beginning to appear in the distance. They were nearing the station. As the group approached it, the sound of another train was heard in the distance.

"To the side." Coscrown made his way onto the separate railway for the trains heading in the opposite direction. They climbed onto the elevated floor of the station as the train slowly came to stop at the other side. The subway was abnormally quiet, fortunately for them; they had just emerged from a network tunnel and would have garnered many unwanted quizzical looks from city folk.

Elliot set the ninetales down and groaned, letting his sore arms hang limply in the air. "Never again will I go to the black market."

"What are you going to do about a pokémon?"

Elliot simply glanced at the ninetales in response.

Coscrown folded his arms, shaking his head. "No, you don't have its pokéball. It'd never agree to being your entranee when it could just escape now and be permanently free."

"Don't give it any ideas..." Elliot stared at the pokémon, who in turn stared emotionlessly back at him. "Maybe I don't need a pokéball for it. Maybe I can persuade it."

"Persuade it to kill itself?"

For a moment, Elliot could just barely make out a slight smile on the fox pokémon's face; one of sincere gratitude. She turned around, her tails now swaying happily in the air, and made her way to the exit. Before she was completely out of sight, she took a moment to glance one last time at Elliot.

As she then disappeared, Coscrown looked at Elliot smugly.

"Well, maybe it's for the greater good that I don't just jump into battles right away," Elliot suggested.

"Well, that's what _I_ did, and look at me."

"No, I can't risk losing my money."

"I better train you to be a good trainer then."


	7. Lights

**∴ vii ∴  
Lights**

_ ~9:00 PM, Wednesday, September_

Kai sat silently on a wooden bench as he watched two children partake in a pokémon battle on the dirt basketball court before him. Floodlights lit up the court so that it was the only thing in the entire area that wasn't engulfed in pure darkness. The basketball court was separate from the rest of Grand Central Park; everything else – the ponds, the boulders, the cafes – had all been lost to the night.

Kai watched keenly as one of the children released a vaporeon from its cage, and the other a skarmory. The two grinned when they saw each other.

"Hey, mate!" the vaporeon called out happily. "Haven't seen you in a while, eh?"

"Yeah, it's been a while, hasn't it?" the skarmory agreed.

"Okay!" one of the kids interjected, rubbing his hands together smugly and clearing his throat in preparation. "Chance, use Spikes!"

In an instant, the vaporeon was surrounded by metal caltrops of which the skarmory had summoned from thin air. The vaporeon simply looked down and shook its head.

"Flash Cannon!" came the trainer's shrill voice again.

An array of red and silver spheres were continuously projected from the skarmory's maw. They collided with the bubble jet pokémon, forcing it to stumble backwards and step on a spike.

"Aiiee!" the vaporeon cried.

"Del, dig your way out of there."

The vaporeon complied and burrowed into the ground and underneath the caltrops.

"Chance, Fly!"

Before the skarmory could obey, the ground beneath it caved in before erupting in an explosion of dirt and gravel. The armor bird pokémon toppled backwards onto its back. It lifted its head up to give the vaporeon a questioning look. "A Ground-type move against a Flying-type? Your trainer isn't the brightest kid on the block, is he?"

"He's ten years old. Cut him some slack."

"Use Scald!"

The vaporeon smirked slightly. It inhaled deeply, keeping an eye on its target. Steam began to ascend from its mouth, notifying it that its attack was ready to be released. It then regurgitated a jet of water at the skarmory. Upon contact with the stream, the skarmory was thrown into the air. The vaporeon ceased its attack and watched as its opponent fell to the dirt.

"Hey!" the skarmory groaned as it returned to its feet. "That... actually kind of hurt."

"Oh, shoot. I'm sorry!"

Kai had seen enough. He stood up and left his bench to roam the park. He sighed to himself plaintively. He longed to be in those pokémon's positions right now; safe from the possibility of dying or at least being severely injured. He longed for once to have a friendly spar with another pokémon, just for fun. He stopped at the edge of a pond, dimly lit up by the moonlight. He stared at his foot, straining his eyes to observe it. It had healed fairly quickly, just as Graham had predicted. A new, shiny shell had regrown over the roof of his foot. The shell was a brighter green in comparison to the rest of his body. When scyther molt, their new exoskeletons are always paler and shinier, temporarily.

A soft cough was heard close by. Kai averted his glance from his foot to a nearby tree, where he saw the faint glow of the moon-lit fur of a pokémon as it sat next to the tree's trunk. Kai approached the creature wearily. When he got closer, he recognized it immediately. "Hello?"

The absol jerked her head up with a start. She looked at the humanoid silhouette, trying to determine who it was.

"Lily?"

"Oh, is that Kaiser?" The absol began to stir nervously where she sat.

Kai sat next to the absol and chuckled. "I was _just_ thinking about you and Graham. My foot has healed up nicely."

"Oh, that's great, Kaiser." Her unsettled attitude disconcerted Kai.

"Is something wrong? What are you doing out here?"

"Nothing's wrong." Lily strained a smile. "I usually come here in the night. Being a Dark-type, I prefer to explore the cityscape during the night, just like any other typical Dark-type would, don't you know..."

"You seem to be upset about something though."

"I'm not upset – really. Actually, I haven't been this happy in a while, what with this two month break and all. It's just that... once the organization boots up again, I'll immediately be competing in the Biathlon... and so will you."

Kai smiled, looking from the absol to the pond. "I know it might be awkward talking to me, me being a possible opponent for you in the future. I feel the same way about befriending other competitors, but you were sitting there and... Manners. You know. It wouldn't have been courteous to just ignore you. Speaking of which, can you thank your trainer again for my foot?"

"I'll give him an affectionate nuzzle for you," Lily said, grinning. Her smile faded as she looked back down to the ground. "I hate fighting competitively, don't you?"

"N-no, I like my job. I make my trainer happy." Kai was in denial, but his trainer's happiness was enough to subdue his true subconscious feelings towards the athlifend organization.

"You like killing other pokémon?" Lily wore an appalled look on her face.

Kai grew wide-eyed, aware of his mistake. "I... No – well, I mean... No! Of course I don't like killing other pokémon, but if it keeps my trainer from living in a cardboard box, I can cope."

"Okay, I _guess_ I can understand that. But what if your trainer is successful, yet he still forces you into battle?"

"...What do you mean? You're not saying that—"

"Yes, Graham has another job," Lily sighed, suddenly overwhelmed emotionally. She sniffled quietly, then coughed. "I don't know why he does it. For extra money? It's not like he's desperate for money, so why would he risk my life?"

"I'm sure it's for a good reason. However, if Graham is wealthy, he really shouldn't be associated with the organization. Maybe you should try to get him to drop you out."

"I'll try, but I can't really communicate with him that easily."

"You'll figure out a way, surely." Kai stood up and looked down at the melancholic pokémon. "If you don't succeed, then I guess I'll be seeing you at the Introduction, unless we meet before then. Until then, enjoy the rest of your break." Kai gave a warm smile, to which Lily returned. He left the park along with the absol, feeling more depressed than ever.

Lily rose to her feet and headed back home. Instead of cutting right through Brooklyn, she took the long way, taking a bridge from Manhattan to Queens. It was still early in the night so she had enough time to do whatever she pleased, which was roam the boroughs. Being a Dark-type, she was fonder of the night and free from the dreaded daytime.

She trotted through the desolate roads of Astoria. Underneath the streetlights were the falling strings of visible rain. The rain gradually quickened and was then easily felt on the fur of the absol. A dark figure lay underneath a bench nearby. It groaned and curled into a tight ball.

Glaring at the absol, it said, "You've caused this."

Lily cautiously approached the figure with a quizzical look on her face. "...I what?" She fixated her eyes on the figure and allowed them to adjust to the dark. The figure was a ninetales.

"You've made it rain," the ninetales explained angrily.

Lily frowned, suddenly remembering the detrimental superstitions that her kind had been known for (disasters). Long ago, a farmer's crops were flooded and killed. Aware of the presence of an absol, the farmer blamed the pokémon for the flood as if it were a witch. The farmer's word got out and eventually influenced the entire world. Unfortunately, to that day, absol were notorious for causing disasters. "Listen," Lily said, laying down before the ninetales. "The disaster thing is all a hoax. Besides, a little rain is no disaster. Why are you under that bench?"

The ninetales looked away from Lily. "I have no home," she sighed forlornly.

"Why not? Do you have a trainer?"

"Luckily, no. I was almost bought by one though, but then I was set free."

"...Huh? What do you mean you were almost bought by one?" Lily asked suspiciously. "Were you ever, perhaps, affiliated with the sub-government before?"

"Yes, I was for sale at the black market in Manhattan."

"Ah, I see," Lily mumbled, deep in thought. She mused to her herself for a moment, before suggesting, "Why not get a trainer?"

"Why would I want to be owned by a human?"

"Well, honestly, I don't like the idea myself, _especially _the idea of being owned by an entran rather than a simple trainer. But at least you would be fed and nurtured. You know how some homeless humans commit crimes _just_ so they can get to eat the food in prison?"

"I don't want to be forced to fight to the death."

"You're going to die anyway if you don't get a trainer," the absol said as she got back up. "I suggest finding a little kid. Or, if you want, steal food from the produce market. If you're caught, you'll most likely be sent to a shelter and be fed there anyway."

"...I don't know."

"I've got to head back to Staten Island."

"That's a trek."

"Yes, it is. So long." With that, the absol left the ninetales alone to think.

The fox pokémon's mind drifted off to the man who had saved her a few days before. The man who had saved her from the bright lights. She curled back into her ball and shivered as droplets of water fell through the cracks of the bench above. She thought about her savior until she finally fell asleep.


	8. So Much Trouble In the World

**∴ viii ∴  
So Much Trouble In the World**

_ ~2:00 PM, Friday, October_

"Bob!" Elliot exclaimed, surprised. "How's it going, old man?"

"Ah, hello." The old man retrieved his newspaper from his doorstep and smiled at Elliot, who stood at the other side of the fence at his own apartment's door.

"I haven't seen you in months. How come?"

"Yeah, been busy with work and all." Bob tossed his paper back into his house and closed his door behind him.

"Still working for the tabloid? The Sun, right?"

"Yes. I've been editing a whole lot of photos and articles lately, what with all these damn tragic events happening to our poor city. Listen, Elliot... I heard about your fiancée. May God have mercy on you. I hope you've been faring alright."

"It's... It's fine. I'm okay. Hey, are you going to work?"

"Yep. Am going to Queens right now," Bob said, making his way to the apartment's gate, his face still showing a pang of sympathy.

"All the way to Queens!" Elliot walked towards his gate abreast of Bob, now in a much more cheery mood than before. "Damn, Bob. Can I come? We need catching up to do."

"Why not? If you want to talk to me about – you know – go ahead."

The two continued to the subway station and talked to one another as the tube sped from Staten Island to the mainland, through the networks of underground lines. Upon entering their destined station, they left the train and began talking about Bob's job.

"It's boring," the old man chuckled. "Even with the sudden abundance of topics to write about, The Sun still seems to struggle with writing about the topics in an interesting way. Hey, you know about Apple?"

"What, the company that makes the computers?"

"Uh-huh, apparently they're producing a smaller version of the walkman, one that doesn't use CDs but rather takes audio right off your computer. I think they're calling it an iPod. Ever heard of it?"

"Wow, no," Elliot responded incredulously.

"Well, I'm not surprised. Us journalists are usually alerted of things before anyone else. They say they'll be manufacturing and selling them by the end of the month. Well, here we are." Bob ceased walking and looked up to the market's sign, '_The Sun_'.

"Alright. Well, it was good talking to you, Bob. Take care."

"You don't want to come in?"

"I should get going," Elliot shrugged Bob off and proceeded down the road hastily.

"Huh. Okay, talk to you soon!"

The street was unusually quiet, considering it was still early in the afternoon. The man looked towards the cloudless sky as he was engulfed in a sudden wave of heat. He paused to look around the street wonderingly. He wavered slightly, muttering something under his breath, before carrying on. As he turned a corner, he was immediately pounced on by a large mass of golden fur. The mass sloppily licked at his face. He thrust the unwelcome beast off to the side before it could take a chunk of him. He frantically got up, regaining his normal posture and, after several strained breaths, finally regained his composure as well. Turning back to the beast, he realized that it was familiar to him. It was the beast of which he had rescued from an oncoming train nearly a month before. Aside from its noticeably food-deprived and mangled state, it looked the same as before. It was none other than the ninetales escapee.

"You crazy thing! How'd you get all the way to Queens?"

The ninetales responded with a cock of her head and a flutter of her tails.

"Have you been living on the streets all this time? Nobody can catch you without your pokéball, I guess. You look starving..." Elliot wearily extended his hand towards the fox pokémon. As he lay his hand on her head, she impassively closed her eyes and vibrated lightly. "Never thought I'd see you again. If you come to my house I can feed you."

The ninetales looked Elliot up and down, considering his proposal. She thought about the Absol's advice; to find a child and beckon him or her for capture. Alas, as the times flew by, the young trainer population simultaneously diminished. Besides, the ninetales was fed up with living off the garbage that boiled on the concrete, and, recognizing that her rib cage was practically poking right out of her chest, realized that she was on the verge of dying. With a grunt of crying shame, the fox pokémon bowed her head in reluctant acceptance.

"Aye... Okay," Elliot sighed, resting his hands on his hips. 'Should I _really_ train this thing to fight?' he thought, looking at the wrecked animal compassionately. He knelt down to the ninetales and scratched her chin. "I guess you need a name. Any in mind?"

No response.

Elliot glanced around the street in contemplation until his eyes fell on a store sign. '_Astoria Block Party, Saturday, October 6__th__. All individuals are free to their own stands._' The man removed his hand from the ninetales to scratch his own chin. "We're in Astoria, are we? Well how about Aster?" He looked at the pokémon with hope. She nodded approvingly, but felt nonetheless indifferent about the whole topic.

Elliot got up and continued his course to the station, followed by 'Aster'. After a session of trying to persuade the frantic ninetales into the dreaded station and onto the deadly train, Elliot finally succeeded. Sitting down on the plastic seats of the train, his mind wandered back to Bob. It was good to know that the old man was still doing fine. Perhaps Elliot should think about becoming a journalist. He dismissed the thought from his mind, thinking he would probably need a degree to do so. He wasn't certain one needed a degree, but he didn't want to think about getting a job now.

Besides, being associated with the press during that time was dangerous. Later that day, Bob Stevens died after coming in contact with unidentifiable, white spores – the contents within a letter he had received while working at The Sun.


	9. Roll With It

**∴ ix ∴  
Roll With It (Introduction Pt. 1)**

_ ~7:00 PM, Sunday, November_

The Introduction was being held at the indoor pre-skatepark, the same place that Kai had fought the Tropius two months before. Several different judges were there, as well as the mass of contestants and various other organization members including some of the AIO. The gym was arranged so that there was a circle of podiums, rising about one foot from the concrete with their own annexed desk/microphone-stand flanks. Each contestant was stationed at their own pedestal along with their trainers. They slyly looked at one another, knowing well that they might be fighting each other soon. The judges talked with other organization members in the middle before splitting up and making their way to the outside of the circle. One judge remained in the center, microphone at the ready.

He cleared his throat before promptly speaking in a low, booming voice. "I hope you all enjoyed your break! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 21st Manhattan Biathlon Introduction. I'll try to make this quick so you can go home and prepare." He paused to chuckle briefly, a cheery smile permanently plastered onto his fat face. "Terribly sorry for any of you who struggled through the two months. I hope you've all been managing...

"Anyway! Looking around the room I see we have some new faces. Although, it seems last year's winner is here again..." The judge turned and glanced at a young grovyle and his trainer, who nodded at the judge politely. "The competition will start on Monday, next week," the judge continued. "Until then, you have eight – no, seven days to train and... maybe get to know your competition a little more. The point of the Introduction is to see your opponents beforehand and to give you all an idea of who you might be going up against.

"Like last year, the award will be ten grand. I think all other information is unnecessary as of now, so without further ado, I'll let you all introduce yourselves starting with competitor number one... You!"

A blaziken stared blankly at the judge from where she sat, her podium. Unlike most of the others, she was alone.

The judge looked confused for a moment. He then smiled, scratching his neck. "I see that right off the bat we already have an independent fighter. Ladies and gentlemen, as you should well know, being a lone fighter in the Biathlon is accepted. However, it's very rare and normally the lone fighters can use telepathy... So I'm afraid we'll have to skip the blaziken for now. Competitor number two."

The second competitor introduced himself and his partner, an armaldo. "My name is Caleb Greeves, and my partner's name is Aztec. I'm 23 years old. Aztec's won 27 times so far."

"Interesting," the judge remarked. "That's 17 more wins than what one would need to be qualified for the Biathlon. That's very good! That's enough information. Competitor number three."

...Several introductions later, it was Coscrown's turn.

"My name is Royco Coscrown. My scyther's name is Kaiser. He's won about 60 times."

"Wow. That's the most wins so far. Kaiser must be pretty strong."

Coscrown nodded slightly before taking a moment to scan through the rest of the fighters. Cinder and Julie were sitting at the other side of the circle, focusing on the current person's introduction. Coscrown's blue eyes shifted around, trying to search for familiar faces. His gaze fell on the lucario. He sat near Cinder and Julie, and appeared to be without his sweatshirt. His arms were folded, and he was looking down as if he wasn't paying attention to or cared for the introductions, or as if he was sleeping. He then lifted his head to look at the ceiling, mouth agape. On the tiles above, a speck of light, a reflection of the gym's lights from one of his lustrous cones, bounced around here and there. This seemed to entertain him for the time being. Coscrown frowned resentfully, before continuing to look through the people and their entranees.

"My name's Nero. His name is Kaz," the man said, pointing his thumb at the alakazam next to him. "I've got a lot of other aura Pokémon, but Kaz is, in my opinion, the most suitable for the Biathlon." Nero finished his speech soon after and averted his eyes towards the lucario. He looked at him with admiration, rather than with disdain.

"Hello... I'm Graham Wright. My absol's name is Lilynette."

Several introductions later, the judge momentarily paused his rambling to stare at the new contestant, a lone zangoose sitting nonchalantly on his podium (or whatever the equivalent of a nonchalant look is for a zangoose). Quite frankly, with their seemingly permanent scowl and furrowed brows, it was hard to notice any changes of a zangoose's emotion. The judge eyed the Pokémon, before proclaiming, "It seems we have another independent fighter here!"

At this, the lucario tore his eyes from the ceiling and, with a suspicious glare, gave his attention to the loner. Why were there so many independent fighters? As the judge apathetically shrugged and proceeded to the next fighters, the lucario decided to start spending his time more productively by delving into the thoughts of some of his opponents, starting with one of the other trainer-less Pokémon: the zangoose. As his face suggested, the zangoose was bitterly angry, rather than nonchalant. Perhaps all zangoose were constantly incensed and that's why their faces were forever scowling.

Reading his thoughts, the lucario was surprised, yet somewhat amused, at how the only word on the zangoose's mind was "bastards".

'...bastards bastards bastards bastards bastards bastards bastards bastards bastards...'

The lucario chuckled to himself. Apparently, he wasn't the only one there who utterly despised humans. However, the lucario was not too fond of the zangoose (as well as the blaziken) shadowing him and his rebellious independence. Looking around, his eyes fell on the scyther and Coscrown.

'...36, 37, 38, 39, 40. I guess that means two weeks from now... 39 of these Pokémon will be dead,' Kai thought to himself, upset and anxious. 'One of those 39 may be me...'

The lucario continued onto a different competitor. Competitor number one, the lone blaziken, seemed to be buzzing with piqued thoughts.

'What's with all these other loners? I thought I'd be the only one.' The blaziken looked at the lucario. 'He must be one, too. That's three altogether. I'm not surprised there are so many fighters without a trainer. Humans disgrace pokémon. This is how it should be, frankly.'

To the lucario's surprise, there was yet another entranee who hated the humans! Skipping around through the trainers and Pokémon, he noticed that Nero, the alakazam's trainer, was staring intently right back at him.

'...That lucario... He's got a very powerful aura. Heh, he's reading my thoughts right now. Hello, Lucario...'

The lucario frowned as if disgusted, and nervously continued onto the next subject of telepathic observation: a female trainer who also appeared to be staring back at him.

'...Euh, it's looking at me now. What is that ugly thing?' The trainer, who the lucario recalled to be named Shilo Neamo, was the entran of a sneasel named Kiro.

The lucario grumbled to himself. Focusing his telepathy towards the individual woman, he mentally let out a shrill, pterodactyl-like screech. Startled, the woman jerked backwards in her chair, then leaned forward, slamming her head onto the desk. The lucario let out an audible, non-telepathic "Kah-hah!", garnering the attention of close by opponents.

"Juliana Moran and Cinder!" Julie cheerily introduced. "We live in Queens. I'm 23, and Cinder is 28, I believe. We've won around 25 athlifends."

"Not bad, not bad," said the judge. He then signaled for the next contestant to begin, the contestant with the previous year's winner, the grovyle. The grovyle, after he had won the Biathlon, was allowed a break in between years, so his count of wins wasn't actually as high as what was expected. Ten or so introductions later, it was the lucario's turn.

"My name is Max. I'm 29 years old."

"I see we have another lone fighter. And one with telepathy too! That'll make things a lot easier."

"Yes. I've won 65 athlifends."

"Yikes! I've heard about you online, Max. I can't wait to see you out in the rink. Question! Where do you keep all the money you earn? Where do all you lone fighters live, and what do you even spend your money on?" the judge laughed, looking from Maximilian, to the zangoose, and then to the blaziken questioningly. The zangoose and the blaziken both shrugged.

"Well, _I_ use my money for transportation and food," Max answered. "Being able to use telepathy, I'm able to associate with humans and, in this case, store clerks. I don't know what the _they_ do with their money. I don't know."

"Huh, yeah! Strange!"

Max noticed the scizor eyeing him. Curious, he delved into her thoughts.

'...sheesh, 65 wins,' she thought unnervingly. 'Him, the grovyle, and Kaiser seem to be the most powerful out of all of these fighters. I wonder if... _Aye_, I feel like such a whore...'

Max stared at Cinder, perplexed as to what on Earth was going through her mind. He decided to keep his distance from her.

Finally, the last introduction ended and thus, the judge dismissed the competitors, saying, "I'm very excited to see you all next week. Remember to train hard and prepare yourselves. Good luck to you all. And keep in mind that there may be other contestants who'll apply for the Biathlon from now until the deadline. Who would want to miss the Introduction ceremony, though? Goodnight!"


	10. Crash Years

**∴ x ∴  
Crash Years (Introduction Pt. 2)**

_~8:00 PM, Sunday, November_

Upon the judge's dismissal, most of the competitors hastily made their way to the exit, eager to go home and rest. Some competitors lingered behind to either consult with the organization members or with other fighters. Kai decided to talk to Lily, since she was the only other fighter he was fond of and Coscrown was conversing with other trainers, so he'd have to stay in the gym anyway. As he approached the absol, she shuddered and tried her best to feign a friendly smile.

Kai became immediately aware of her trepidation. However, if he decided to leave her alone he'd seem weird, for it was too late for him to retreat, so he awkwardly stood next to her and tried to start a conversation as best he could. "What'd you think of the Introduction?"

Stammering, Lily replied, "Fine, fine. How have – uh – you been?"

Kai knew he was unnecessarily getting involved way too much with Lily, and, feeling a little embarrassed, decided it was best that he should never talk to her again. He looked around in hopes that he could find something to "accidentally" get distracted with and put the conversation to an abrupt end. He immediately regretted his scan, because his eyes were met by the scizor's. The scizor grinned and started to advance on Kai from across the gym.

"A snowstorm is coming," Lily mentioned in an almost chirpy tone. "I can sense it!"

Kai looked back down to her and was relieved that she was, for once, smiling.

"You think it'll cancel the Biathlon?" At this point, Lily was practically hopping up and down in excitement and genuine elation.

"I don't think—"

"Kaiser!" exclaimed the scizor, who now stood before Kai, her claws snapping noisily.

"Oh, mercy," Kai groaned and looked at Cinder and reluctantly returned the greeting.

"Ready for the Biathlon? Looks like we've got quite a competition."

"_We've _got a competition? _We've _got _nothing_, Cinder."

Lily backed away, her smile now gone. It was apparent to her that Kai didn't like the scizor. Actually, it was completely obvious to her and everyone else, except for the scizor herself.

"Dammit, Kai. Open up, would you? Why can't we hang out before the Biathlon? Why can't you come out of your shell?" Cinder narrowed her eyes and smirked salaciously. "Literally," she added, looking Kai's body up and down.

"Cinder!" Kai scoffed. "What the hell?"

Maximilian appeared behind Cinder and gently pushed her off to the side, receiving a smile of gratitude from Kai. Max simply stared back at Kai, his red eyes glowing underneath the florescence. "I see your trainer didn't take my advice."

Kai's smile faded. "Huh? Who are you?" his voice faltered.

"Hey! Lay off, Lucario!" Cinder yelled angrily.

Max shot her an intimidating glare which shut her up. "Your trainer should have dropped you out," he said, returning his glance back to the scyther. "What an idiot. Don't you think it despicable that he forces you to fight when you're his only friend?"

"What are you talking about? I wanted to do this for him... Who the fuck are you to pry into my business with him?"

"Ah... I guess he was telling the truth about that," Max mused quietly. "I just wanted to help you out. I know you don't want to be doing this. No one does... except for me and maybe the zangoose and the blaziken, heh. Whatever, your trainer's going to go through a rough time after you die. Idiot should have seen it coming though."

"What'd you say about a blaziken?" One of the fighters, the blaziken herself, came up to the lucario and looked down at him. She wore red pants that seemed to blend in with the rest of her body. Before, they were hidden by her podium's desk. Why she was wearing pants, no one knew.

"What's with the pants, Loner?" Maximilian questioned rudely. "Wear them 'cause you can?" He said, somewhat reflectively. He then turned to the rest and continued musing to himself until he decided that he had no purpose to stay any longer and left the group pompously.

"My name's not Loner," the blaziken said to no one in particular. "It's Imara. What's up with that guy?" she asked, slightly ticked off.

"I don't know. I don't even know him."

"'Seems he's a little too big for his boots," Lily commented.

"He doesn't have boots," the naïve scizor chimed in.

"Dammit Cinder," Kai scowled, averting his eyes from the distant lucario to a group of other pokémon across the gym. It seemed to consist of the armaldo, the grovyle, and the zangoose. The zangoose looked back at Kai, and took his stare as a beckon to come to him. He began to proceed from across the room towards Kai's group. "We've got more coming," said Kai.

"Hello, Scyther!" the zangoose greeted boisterously.

"Hi... Zangoose," Kai awkwardly rejoined.

"How'd our group get so big?" Imara asked as the armaldo and the grovyle joined the zangoose.

"Are you guys all friends or something?" questioned the grovyle.

"Not... really."

"Where'd that lucario go?" The zangoose glared around the room intently. "I'd like to have a word with him."

"Why?" Imara stepped up to the cat ferret and looked down at him, arms folded. "Because he's an independent fighter, like you? So am I."

"Is that so?" The zangoose stood up on two legs and glowered up at Imara.

Cinder was getting fed up with the constant chatter and distractions. She grabbed Kai by the shoulder and pulled him off to the side. "Kai, I still want an answer."

"About the date?" Kai shook away from Cinder. "Why are you so eager to get with me?"

"H-huh!?" The scizor stuttered, wide-eyed. "Get with you!"

"Come on, if we got... er – friendly with one another now, it'll just be pointless. Listen Cinder, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but in two weeks from now, if I'm not dead, you _will _be."

"Yeah, I know that." Cinder glared at the absol. "What about her, though?"

"Who, Lily?"

"Yeah, you're so friendly with her, are you not? Huh?"

Kai let out a loud sigh, signifying his defeat. "Fine. I'll hang out with you. But! They have to come too." He gestured to the group.

"What? No way!" she cried. "We should be alone."

"It's that or nothing."

"...Alright, alright. I guess it _is_ better than nothing."

Kai turned to the group. "You guys want to hang out?" he called.

"Right now?" Imara asked, scratching her head. "Where?"

"A restaurant, maybe," Cinder replied.

"Yeah, let's go get drunk!" the grovyle cheered, earning a physical rebuke from the armaldo.

"How are we supposed to go to a restaurant without a human?"

"I've got telepathy," Cinder answered proudly. "They'd be happy to serve us as long as they can understand us (...me)."

Lily approached Kai with a frown on her face. "Kai," she whispered. "I thought you didn't want to befriend any of your competition."

"I didn't want to but Cinder's dragging me into it. You don't have to come if you don't want to."

"I... Whatever. I'll come. I probably won't be talking to any of them anyway."

The group dispersed to go talk to their trainers for permission to leave (as well as money). Their trainers didn't seem to mind their pokémon getting friendly with the other contestants. Befriending other contestants could be detrimental in that it might cause the refusal to fight, but that didn't seem to cross the trainers' minds. And so the group left the gym to roam the streets of Downtown Manhattan, looking for a nice place to eat around the busy, neon-engulfed zone of Times Square. This would turn out to be a big mistake made on their part in the long run.


	11. Times Like These

**∴ xi ∴  
Times Like These**

_~9:15 PM, Sunday, November_

The group gazed around in awe as they entered Times Square. The moving neon images on the billboards seemed to cover every square foot of the buildings in the area. Straight above was the little amount of dark-grey sky that wasn't obscured by the towering skyscrapers. Between the night's stars and the concrete surface of the city, a thick shroud of smog lay suspended in the air and, in certain patches, reflected the luminescence of the pink and red signs below.

The pokémon that lived in other boroughs besides Manhattan rarely got to see Times Square. Mainly because the athlifends were usually hosted in the outskirts of Downtown. Kai had seen the site plenty of times before, so he simply shrugged off the site and slunk on, letting his scythes hang limply, carving lines in the sidewalk.

"I may go blind!" someone exclaimed as they gaped at the signs.

"So, Kai," the scizor eased her way to Kai and walked abreast of him. "Where do you want to go?"

The scyther groaned, rolling his eyes. "Shouldn't you ask them?" he replied, referring to the others in the group.

Cinder also groaned in response and peered around her shoulder contemptuously at the rest of the group. "Oh, yes. _Them_. Hey guys!" she called out in a fake cheery tone. "Where should we go?"

"I don't care."

"Japanese!"

"A diner."

"Woah woah," Cinder stuck her claws out, trying to slow the group down. "Those places serve human food."

"So?" Kai squinted at Cinder.

"Well... Doesn't – doesn't..." Cinder fumbled with her words. "Won't we get indigestion if we eat human food or something?"

Kai wrapped his scythe around the stammering scizor and pulled her up to him. Glaring at her, he said, "You should have figured we'd be going to eat human food when we mentioned 'restaurant'. Wait... _You're_ the one who suggested we go to a restaurant, so don't complain."

"Alright, fine," Cinder pouted. "Why are you so grumpy all the time, Kai?"

"Because of my job."

They eventually found a diner that seemed appealing, as it was the only sanitary-looking diner in the area. As they entered the restaurant, a waiter approached them and greeted them with a frown.

"A group of pokémon? What do you expect to do here?"

"Table for seven, please! Preferably a booth."

The waiter recoiled and gawked at the group. "Which one of you talked?"

Cinder stepped forth with folded arms.

"A scizor who can talk." The man scratched his head in amazement. "That'll make this easier, I guess. But do you have money? _Hah_!"

"Yes, yes!" Cinder quickly presented her claws to the man. Opening them up, she exposed the crumbled bills inside the hollows. "Booth, please!" she pleaded impatiently.

The waiter grumbled something inaudible. Then, shaking his head, he complied and lead the group to a booth by a window overlooking the streets outside. Cinder sat across from Kai, trying to blank out the rest of the group as if it was only her and him. Kai noticed her stare and made at face, but she refused to stop looking at him.

Kai turned to Lily, who sat to his left. "This is awkward," he whispered.

Lily responded with a nod. She glanced around the table, whispering back, "Yeah. They all seem nice though. The blaziken and the zangoose seem a little scary, but other than that, it seems to be a pretty friendly group of pokémon." She stirred slightly, trying to get comfortable in the seats not suited for pokémon, especially four-legged ones. She leaned towards Kai, letting her sickle-horn graze his cheek. "I don't want to fight any of them though. They just seem too nice."

Cinder frowned and growled quietly at the absol's horn.

Kai shifted his head from the horn, mumbling "That's no way to think, Lily. You'll have to fight them no matter what. Don't grow too attached to them."

"But that's what you're doing," Lily whispered harshly.

"Cinder insisted on having this date, so I asked all of you to come so it wouldn't be so – uh – weird..."

The other half of the table chatted noisily, as if they really were friends. They had forgotten about the Biathlon, being so preoccupied with conversation. They seemed to be joking about something and laughing a lot. Kai shook his head, somewhat ashamed of himself. He had brought along these competitors for his own selfish needs, and the displeasing result was them befriending their opposing fighters whom they may have to kill later on... And how easily they befriended each other, too!

Kai sighed and looked out the window, deep in though.

"But Kai, if any of those are paired up together, they wouldn't want to kill each other, unless they're _that _cold." Lily rested her head on the table forlornly. "I wouldn't want to kill you if we were paired together."

"Really?" Kai looked down to the absol, taken aback. Well, at least he knew she didn't _hate_ him. Kai frowned lightly. "We probably won't be fighting though. We're only two pokémon out of 40."

Lily raised her head and looked at Kai directly, grimacing as if disgusted. "What does _that_ mean?" she spoke aloud. "Did you figure I'd die before I faced you? Or will you die before you faced me?"

Cinder chuckled.

"No, Lily, of course not," Kai answered calmly. "For all I know, we could both die before we faced each other." Kai shut his eyes, now confused. "Wait," he murmured. "That's not what I wanted to say."

"Kai," Lily leaned in towards Kai again with a look of concern on her face. "You've brought all of these pokémon here." For a moment, she thought Kai had brought his competition out to eat with the intent of ensnaring them in a trap, one that corrupts them before the tournament for his own advantage.

"I'm aware, Lily. Believe me, I didn't know they'd fall in love with each other within a mere hour!"

By now, the other half of the table was looking at both Kai and Lily. They averted their stares when the waiter arrived.

"What do y'all want? 'Cause we don't serve kibble."

"Oh, shoot!" Cinder said. "Guys, quick, give me your orders."

"...I don't know how to read the menu."

"Hey, me neither!"

Cinder sighed to herself. "You guys just want... bread roles or something?"

The others shrugged and nodded their heads.

"Okay," Cinder spoke to the waiter. "We'll just have bread roles, I guess. A lot of them!"

The waiter made a face of both confusion and exasperation. He left the table, shaking his head and rubbing at his temples. The table was quiet for a minute. Kai laid back in his seat and exhaled loudly. Cinder smiled at him, waiting for him to finally notice and talk to her. He simply stared back at her and said nothing.

"So I don't actually know any of your names," Shiro mentioned, leaning against the table and clawing at a napkin absentmindedly. "I wasn't really paying attention during the Introduction. You!" He suddenly pointed to the blaziken. "What's your name?"

"Imara."

"And you fight alone, huh?"

"Yes, as does the lucario."

"Oh yeah, the lucario. I'd like to slice that snob's throat!" Shiro exclaimed, tearing the napkin in half. He stopped and looked around at all the disconcerted glares of the others. He cleared his throat, slightly embarrassed. He looked to the armaldo and ordered, in an attempt to change the subject, for his name.

"Aztec," replied the armaldo.

"You're a quiet one," Shiro commented, almost suspiciously. "What's your deal?"

"I'd rather listen than partake in conversation, for I haven't much to say."

"So why'd you come out with us tonight?"

Aztec tilted his head in contemplation. His once blue scales had dulled from age and had a slight purple complexion. The oval wings that sprouted from his sides were chipped and cracked here and there and were nearly fully transparent. They lowered and rose with a mind of their own, like leaves in wind. "Well, I've been pretty secluded my whole life, until I got affiliated with the organization. I just..." He looked down at the table, unable to say anymore for the moment.

"You're a lonely one, huh?" The zangoose smirked, caressing the soft shreds of the napkin. "I see why you'd want to spend your last moments happily with others, as opposed to 'secluded'."

Aztec merely nodded solemnly without attempting to retort to or scold Shiro; Shiro's statement overtly allegorized the supposed inevitability of Aztec's death in the tournament, yet Aztec responded as if he agreed. In fact, at that point, most of the pokémon entered in the tournament were almost positive that they were going to die (save for the overly conceited ones).

The grovyle shot Shiro a glare. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Zangoose."

"My name is Shiro, _Grovyle_."

"Oh? Well mine's Cereus, _Shiro_."

"Looks like they all hate each other now," Kai murmured into Lily's ear. Lily couldn't help but laugh, despite how she was a little upset with Kai.

"Dammit, enough of this," Cinder leaned forward and eyed the scyther. "Kaiser, tell me about you! I don't want to learn about all these others, I want to learn about you."

"I can't tell if you're actually in love with me, or just a fanatic."

"In love with you?" Cinder clasped her claws together and shied away from eye contact with Kai in an embarrassed manner. "I'm not in love with you, gosh no," she giggled.

"Oh Cinder. I'm afraid there's not much to know about me. What about you? How did you get your telepathy?"

Cinder rested her chin on her claw and stared off into space nonchalantly. "It was a mutation. Something got screwed up with my chromosomes, you know. Isn't it cool though? I'm glad I'm not severely disfigured. In fact, telepathy is such a useful ability to have, I'm not even sure if it should be deemed a mutation. More like a gift."

"Telepathy doesn't seem like just some kind of mutation. A mixup of your As, Gs, Ts, and Cs would result in physical appearance mutations, rather than abilities. Maybe one of your parents passed it down to you?"

"Perhaps you're right. I don't know what was going on inside me; I wasn't alive yet." Cinder paused to chuckle quietly to herself. She then looked at Kai through narrowed eyes. She cleared her throat and looked down to the table again. "As for my parents, they left me on Fire Island, so I never saw them."

Kai glanced at Cinder, surprised. He disregarded what she said about her parents and was more interested by her origin. "You were born on Fire Island?"

Cinder smirked and nodded slowly.

"Huh, so was I. What a coincidence."

"Indeed. I take it you're a fan of science?"

"Well, yeah it's pretty cool."

"I like it too!"

Kai smiled at Cinder with a newfound respect for her. "Well, Cinder, I guess we have a lot more in common than I thought. Tell me about growing up on Fire Island."

Cinder appeared to be staring at something outside the window. Her eyes fixed on the something in the distance, she was no longer paying attention to the scyther. She cursed under her breath and looked back at Kai. "I should leave."

"What?" Kai frowned. "I thought you were so eager to get to know me, and now you're leaving?"

Cinder threw her money onto the table and leapt over the back-padding of the booth. "Bye everyone! Kai! This isn't finished. We're getting together again before the Biathlon, and this time we're going to be alone." She sped off, passing the waiter as he was returning with the bread rolls. "Thank you. Money's on the table."

The waiter stared at the scizor as she flew out the doors of the diner. "How am I supposed to talk to the pokémon without her help?" he mused.

Kai sat quietly, looking at the empty spot where Cinder once was. He went the rest of the night ruminating and not talking to any of the others, as did Lily. Shiro and Cereus overcame their troubles as soon as the food was placed on the table, and were once again laughing as they blissfully indulged in eating the warm and delicious human food.


	12. Max's Map of the Problématique

**∴ xii ∴  
Max's Map of the Problématique**

_~9:30 PM, Sunday, November_

"I personally don't care whether or not you join us, however my master still thinks—"

"I've heard enough about your master," Maximilian snapped at the alakazam, who had been half-hovering/half-scuttling next to Max, trying to keep up with the lucario's fast pace.

"I'm sure you have heard enough, and I am truly sorry," Kaz said with a sigh, the tendrils hanging from his snout flickering about as he did so. "But why must you unnecessarily put yourself in danger when you can be fed and housed, despite the absence of money you would need to have? How you're so willing to kill and possibly be killed just for money is so... unnatural. My master is unable to perceive such unnatural conducts, and wishes for you to join us so he can supply you with your needs without having you die attempting to get them yourself. You can't simply get shelter and food with money; you're a pokémon."

"Enough, alakazam! What's-His-Face, your '_master_', said he deals with pokémon wielding all forms of aura-reception, therefore he must only want me because I am _the_ aura pokémon, another possible piece for his trophy case. I will never be the slave of a human."

"Nero's not like that," Kaz argued, but then he fell silent. He let out a breath of frustration and finally gave up. "I see why you wouldn't want to be owned. I was trying to help."

"I tried to help someone once," Max said, suddenly overwhelmed by sadness. He looked to the concrete below as he continued to walk. His mind drifted to the scyther. "...It didn't work. You should know helping others is pointless."

Kaz was about to continue arguing, but instead he looked around the cityscape, muddled. "We've been here before. Why are we walking in circles?"

"Because I don't want you following me to my home, you Pesky."

"I see. My apologies, Sir." Kaz shook his head in disappointment and halted, planting his feet firmly on the concrete and watching as the lucario walked off. He, not being much of a talkative type, didn't really mind if their conversation ended. He sighed and changed directions, heading back to the gym where his trainer still was.

Max walked down the lighted streets of Times Square until he arrived at the subway station. He unfolded his sweatshirt, which he had had with him through the entire Introduction bundled up in his paw, and put it on, checking to make sure his metro card was still in its pocket. He held the card and presented it to the subway machine, which then allowed him through the grates of the fence. The stations were once again busy and full of people. Maximilian hated such concentrations of people, but he had to cope, unless he found a better method of transportation. He boarded what seemed like the least packed cart to him and sat on a plastic seat. He looked to his left in hopes that Coscrown would be seated next to him like before, but no one was there. He leaned back and put his hood up and, with his paws, positioned his ears underneath so they were comfortable. He looked at the multicolored, plaster flooring as he slowly began to doze off.

He suddenly opened his eyes and jerked up, feeling the presence of something familiar boarding the cart. At first he thought it was Coscrown, but as he raised his head slightly, he found out it wasn't someone whom he had met before, but rather a pokémon of his own species, a lucario. He slyly looked at it from under his hood as it walked past and sat in a seat not too far away. He was able to tell it was a female, simply because like species were able to distinguish themselves from each other by their subtle oddities in physical traits. This female had four perfectly intact and admirable tendrils, unlike Max, who had a chip off one of his.

The female didn't seem to notice Max. Max was aware that his species were rarely seen, especially in America, but what was really interesting to him about the female was the fact that she was on a subway train, something made specifically for humans. He suddenly felt a little subconscious about wearing his sweatshirt, whereas she was completely naked and, in other words, normal. She lowered her lids and sniffed the air tiredly. The train closed its doors and proceeded down the tunnel.

Max couldn't help but gape at the female. He forced himself to tear his eyes from her before she noticed him. He stared at something on the floor instead: An orange and blue credit card-shaped paper lay solitarily in the middle of the floor in front of him. At first, he thought it really _was_ a credit card, but, after straining his eyes, realized it was a metro card. Stuffing his hands into his sweatshirt pockets, he searched for his card. To his surprise, his card was still safe within his pocket. He wondered who the one laying on the floor belonged to then. He stared around the cart until his eyes fell on the female. He smiled to himself and removed his hood from his head. His ears perked up happily in the air once again. He bent over and tried to pick up the card but he struggled at first. He finally managed to slide one of his nails underneath the card and pick it up. He shyly sidled towards the female and sat across from her. She looked up at him as her lids instantaneously shot open.

Max chuckled, outstretching his hand to give her the metro card, and said, "Is this yours?"

The female was silent at first. She stared at the card, confused, until she finally uttered, "Oh. I think so. Thank you." She grabbed the card and looked at Max with a slight smile on her face. "It's... hard to keep one of these when you don't have any place to put them in." She observed Max's sweatshirt.

"Yeah, that's why I have this," replied Max, pointing to the clothing.

"I see. Thanks again." Her voice was soothing, and somewhat familiar as well as her aura.

Max continued to stare at the other lucario. He felt he had to say more, rather than just leave her alone. "Why do you have a metro card? Well, I mean, why do you use the trains?"

The female stared at him quizzically. "So I can get around..." she spoke as if her answer was obvious—which it was.

"No, no," Max stammered. "I mean... I'm sorry, it's just unusual to see another lucario, especially on the tube."

The female laughed. "Yeah, you're right! I'm guessing you don't have a trainer, also?"

Maximilian stared at her incredulously. "No! You-you don't have a trainer?" He excitedly wavered where he sat, looking at the female hopefully.

"No, despite how I battle often. Actually, I'm joining the Biathlon, if I can. You know about the Biathlon?"

"Oh... Yes, I'm in the Biathlon. Why didn't you join earlier? You missed the Introduction."

The female frowned. "I'm aware. I hope they still let me in. The Introduction isn't mandatory, as stated on the website."

Max gave the female a disbelieving stare. "You check the website? How can you check—"

"Internet cafes..."

Max couldn't believe what he was hearing. "How can we be so similar?" he mused, mostly to himself than to the female.

The female lucario, hearing this, replied with a grin, exposing her perfectly white teeth. "It's our nature. Lucario are similar in that they are able to self-support with the help of their telepathic ability as well as wisdom." Her eyes narrowed as she continued smiling. She looked at Max's body and, suddenly frowning, sighed. Her expression faintly hinted disgust, unnoticeable to Max.

A moment of silence passed between them. A group of humans chatted noisily at the other side of the cart. The train came to a halt and opened up its doors, releasing several people and allowing replacements in.

Max had grown uncomfortable. He wondered if she was still willing to talk to him. He hesitated before asking for her name. The inquiry, for some reason, seemed to take her by surprise. She gazed at something above Maximilian, her eyes glazing over as she was lost in thought.

Finally, she replied, "Zera."

"...Forgot your name for a moment there?"

Zera laughed. "No, I was just deciding whether or not I should tell a stranger. But, I guess you seem nice." She smiled warmly, which seemed to lighten Max's mood.

He introduced himself to her. They talked for the rest of the ride until they had to part. As Max left the station he thought about the female. He thought that he should try to find her before the tournament and perhaps get to know her more, despite how either he or she would be dead after the tournament (if she actually _did _join). Something was enthralling about Zera, such as the fact that she and Max were of the same species and had so much in common. Max never talked to other pokémon. He didn't have much of a social life to speak of. He chose to exclude himself from interacting with others, especially humans, for every human seemed like the same ignorant fool in his eyes. As cynical (thus hypocritical) as he was regarding humans, he still respected other pokémon, even though most pokémon, unlike him, were willing to obey humans for reasons unknown. This is why he fancied Zera – for her difference from the rest and her interesting nature as well as independence. She was someone who Max could actually have a decent conversation with.

He had been walking through a small and densely wooded park. He stopped in front of a tree larger than the rest and climbed it. He rested at the top where the branches all separated and created a large dent. He felt around his perch until his paw made its way into a small niche carved into the wood, making sure his hidden money was still secure inside the hole. He then laid in the dent and slowly drifted off to sleep with a much happier mood than usual.


	13. Behind the Wall of Sleep

**∴ xiii ∴  
Behind the Wall of Sleep**

'Drop out before it's too late,' they said.

'Why would you sacrifice your friend?' they said.

...The man had made a terrible mistake. Two mistakes. One made a long time ago, during the summer, when he signed his friend up to be a fighter. The other one made at that moment, when he hadn't reacted to his friend's opponent's relentless attacks. On the rink, the man stood over his friend's crumpled body and yelled at the opponent as if he was scolding him.

The man dropped to his knees and examined his friend's body, eyes wide with disbelief. A tear rolled down his face, which was soon followed by other tears. The crowd surrounding the rink roared. The man lifted his head and screamed at the crowd. "It's not over! Stop cheering! Stop!"

He returned to staring at the friend's battered body. "Come on, Kai," he stammered. "You can get up!"

"Roy..." the body spoke in a barely audible, husky voice. "I can't get up."

This only made the man cry harder. He clutched his head and hung over the body, trying to protect it like an empoleon and her egg.

The blue bipedal, the opponent, approached the two with an air of pride surrounding it like the aura of which it controls. "Mr. Coscrown, please leave the rink," he urged him to retreat, but the man persistently hung over the body like a gargoyle. "Let me take it from here."

"No!" the man blurted out. "Stay away from him!"

"I told you to drop out before it was too late, and now look at you. You ignorant fool." The bipedal laughed, but then glared at the man. With on motion of his paw, he blew the man backwards with a wave of invisible energy. The man rolled along the concrete and then lay still, looking towards the blue sky. Giving up, he cried harshly, putting his hands over his ears as to block out the sounds of the crowd and the crushing and cracking of exoskeleton. He closed his eyes tight for a moment. When he opened them, they took a moment to adjust.

For some reason, the sky had darkened. The sounds had faded away as well. He sat upright and looked around, his eyes still streaming with tears. His eyes were drawn to a red light not too far away. Realizing it was his alarm clock, he let out a sigh.

_~5:15 AM, Tuesday, November_

Coscrown was suddenly overwhelmed with nausea, like he usually was before an athlifend. He stumbled out of his bed and to his window, where he leaned against the glass and scanned the moonlit cityscape, all the while trying to convince his stomach that he wasn't in the middle of a fight. He wiped his eyes and sniffed. He cursed to himself. "I need to drop him out," he mused, glancing over at the wall where Kai slept just on the other side. He shook his head and continued looking out the window. "I can't though... I need the money..." He groaned and rubbed his eyes, whining.

His nausea had subsided, so he decided to return to his bed. He couldn't fall asleep though. He felt like a part of him had died, and the part was replaced with one of pure self-loathing. Kai was going to die. He knew it. No way could Kai win against forty of the strongest competitors in the athlifend organization. Of course, Kai wouldn't be facing forty other pokémon, but that was how Coscrown saw it then; he had lost all faith.

The man sighed and shifted in his bed. No, he needed that money. He needed that money for something that would change his life. There was no other way he could get ten grand. Well, there was no other way he could get ten grand _quickly_. Saving up money earned from a fast food business was not something he was up for.

However, if he lost the Biathlon, that'd mean 250 dollars would go down the drain, and, worst of all, so would his companion. "Kai _isn't_ going to die," he forced himself to believe. "I'm going to get that money. I have to." He sat up and leaned towards his bedside table. Opening its drawer, he began fishing through it. He took out a pill bottle and emptied some of its contents, two tablets, into his hand and swallowed them. Finally, after half an hour, he fell into a thankfully dreamless sleep.

_ ~10:00 AM_

Coscrown and Kai sat across from each other at a table in a Brooklyn cafe. Coscrown slowly stirred his coffee with a spoon silently, staring into the coffee in a trance. Kai, the table space before him empty, waited for his trainer to speak with a questioning look on his face. By now, the man's coffee had gotten cold. The strong smell of mocha that filled the air in the cafe seemed to put him off of his own drink. His hands trembled as they oscillated, giving Kai the impression that he was nervous about something.

"Roy?"

Coscrown hitched back in his seat slightly, dropping the spoon into the coffee with a loud, porcelaneous _clink_. For a moment, the man had forgotten how the scyther wasn't able to talk, whereas in the dream he had that early morning, Kai spoke (spluttered) English and Coscrown could understand him clearly. He sighed, now remembering the dream, and leaned forward, giving Kai a sorrowful stare.

"Listen Kai," he started after a moment of hesitation. "...I think we're both very aware of what I have been doing—what I have been doing to you – something terrible. I'm sure your friends have talked with you about it." He forced a chuckle. "I'm sure your friends think I'm utter scum, and I am, I know."

Kai seemed to understand. He stared at the table expressionlessly, occasionally nodded his head slightly. Considering his 'owner' did so much for him, things that no other owner would do for their pokémon, he didn't mind that Coscrown had sent him to war. Besides, as Kai had said before, it's not like entering him in contests was an involuntary thing. The fact that he was _still_ being entered in contests was a little concerning, however.

"Unfortunately, I still need you to stay in the tournament." Coscrown expected an exasperated groan from the scyther, but there was nothing but silence at the other side of the table. So instead, the man filled the silence with his own groan before continuing. "Kai, I'm sorry. This is the worst thing I have ever had to do, but I need to do it for the money." Coscrown quieted when he realized what he had said. He fumbled with his words. His poor attempts to redeem himself seemed to entertain Kai. "I mean... Okay, Kai.

"I've been saving up money. This ten thousand dollars is all I need left."

"What—"

"I won't tell you what the money's for. It's not important right now. The fact is, this money is going to something that will help us both extremely. The money's not just for me, but for you too. You know I try to get what's best for you... Other than entering you in the athlifend organization, I haven't been so bad, have I? But right now, Grandma's money is quickly flying out the window. Remember Grandma, Kai? I'm almost out of money. I'm broke.

"You need to understand that I'm doing this for the better of both of us. Though, I can understand if you still think I'm a poor trainer."

"I never thought you were a poor..." Kai's voice trailed off. What was he doing, talking? Talking never did anything for him. Instead, he smiled at Coscrown, trying to calm him down.

"But the fact of the matter is, Kai, that you can do it. You can beat the Biathlon. I am sure of it." He sure wasn't just that morning. "You've been fighting for five-plus months. I swear, you can't die!" the man laughed. "You're indestructible."

Kai chuckled, staring around the cafe, flattered.

"Look at me, Guy. If you win the tournament, you'll never be put in another fight again. Not even a friendly match. We'll move from the Crown and to Manhattan, how 'bout that?"

"But the room—!"

"I'll make sure the new flat faces the west, so you can go crazy all you want for your sunsets, weather permitted. Sadly, I don't think the apartment with be _exactly_ the same. I won't be getting parquet flooring again, not after you've scratched up the entire floor in our current apartment."

Kai's smile didn't falter. "I don't care about the flooring." He stood up from his chair. "I'm going to see some friends."

"What are you doing? You're leaving? Elliot's about to be here. Don't you want to say hi?"

"Can't. I'm late." He made his way to the door, which flung open as he came near. Elliot and his ninetales walked in, surprising Kai. They greeted each other. That was the first time Kai had seen Aster. Before he knew it, Aster was walking alongside him down the street towards the rendezvous, while they both exchanged chitchat.

"I didn't even know Elliot got a pokémon," stated the scyther.

"It was sort of out of the blue. I saw your owner with Elliot a while back. That was your owner, right? Sitting at that table?"

Kai nodded. He somewhat envied Aster for that fact that Elliot, despite how he wanted to enter the athlifend organization previously, didn't go through with it and enter Aster. Even she, herself, was surprised when the topic of athlifends never even came up between her and Elliot. Not yet, anyway.

_~10:30 AM_

Kai was completely taken aback when he saw Lily among the small group of other pokémon. As he and Aster approached the group, Aster huffed angrily.

"Absol," she spat.

"What's wrong with absol?"

Aster couldn't respond, for the group had noticed her and Kai and had surrounded them.

"Hello Kai!" they said happily. "And who's this?"

"This is Astro."

"Hello Astro!"

Aster looked around, flustered. "Huh?"

Kai knelt down to Lily and spoke softly to her, "I didn't know you'd be here. I thought you were against getting friendly with the competition."

Lily sighed and clawed at the ground. "I figured I probably won't be fighting any of you anyway. There's not a good chance of it. Besides, this snowstorm that's coming... It's big."

"I doubt a snowstorm will cancel anything. Maybe the tournament'll be delayed at most."

"Your ninetales friend... Have I seen her before?" Lily mused. "No. Can't be." She made her way over to Aster, who looked at her through narrowed eyes.

Suddenly, Aster's eyes opened fully. "You! You _are_ the one who soaked me that night!"

Lily's mouth fell agape. "Wow. How'd you get back in shape?"

"I got a trainer, like you said I should. And no, he doesn't make me fight."

"Well that's great! I'm glad you're better now. What did Kaiser say your name was?"

"Astro," the ninetales replied. After a moment, she shook her head, floundering. "Aster! Not Astro."

"How many names do you have?" Lily asked teasingly.

To her disbelief, Aster answered, "A lot. I've been around quite some time – around two hundred years."

"What the heck? Damn... Did the World Wars really exist?"

Aster didn't think of the particular question as odd, for she was usually asked things like that often. "Oh, the Wars were as real as my forepaw," she answered the inconsequential question in a matter-of-fact tone. "And let me tell you, the world didn't get any better since."

* * *

**Temporary Note: Hey guys. How are you enjoying the story so far? Because shit's about to go down.**

**Hey, question: Of all the characters in the story, who do you want to die the most? Who do you hate the most? If you answer 'no one', then I haven't been characterizing properly...**


	14. X&Y

**∴ xiv ∴  
X&Y**

_~10:45 AM, Tuesday, November_

Lurking in the shadows of an alleyway, a sneasel watched from across the street as the group sat on the front steps of an apartment complex and talked with each other. After realizing the group was familiar to her, she emerged from the alleyway and stood in the open on the sidewalk. On the other side of the street, the group didn't show signs of acknowledging her presence, as they kept talking. Being the haughty sneasel she was, she questioned their overlooking of her presence angrily.

"Keep quiet over there!" she called, making a reason for herself to go over to them (so she could deliberately cause trouble). "Damn goons." She sped across the road, not bothering to look both ways. Why would she need to when all oncoming cars would, without hesitation, stop for their mistress?

The group of pokémon was now staring at her. The sneasel looked them over, making a mental list consisting of the pokémon and their titles as portrayed by her:

The awkward absol. The quiet "O Wise One" armaldo. The easy KO, dumb-looking scyther... And the easy KO, tiny grovyle, who was apparently last year's winner. Also, there was some unrecognizable ninetales, who was presumably just tagging along with the group.

"You're all in the Biathlon," the sneasel stated forthrightly, not referring to the ninetales. "What a coincidence. So am I!" She grinned wickedly as she rested the backs of her paws on her hips and studied the grovyle.

Cereus looked back at her nervously. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted before he could even utter a syllable.

"So you won a Biathlon before, huh?" asked the sneasel.

"Yes. I have," Cereus replied warily. His response was met by a derisive laugh from the sneasel.

"Get out of town! You're not even evolved. You're like a tiny, flimsy... twig in the wind."

Cereus' face showed a slight pang of sadness, and this made the sneasel's sly smile even wider. He frowned suddenly, retorting, "I rely on speed to win. Last year, it was me up against a rhydon who had practically trampled its way up to the last competition. It was tough; depending on its weight to crush its opponents. But me, I simply stepped out of the way of its charge, leapt on its back, and found a weak spot in between two of its metal plates, and—"

"Cereus, please stop," Aztec silently pleaded, nervously scratching at his neck where two of his own shell plates met.

The sneasel, however, had been sitting, eagerly listening to Cereus' speech like a kid listening to war stories told by their grandfather. After a moment of silence, she stood up. "Very interesting story, Gramps." She looked to the rest. "Never expected Biathlon fighters to be hanging out with each other before they start to kill each other. But, then again, that's something I would do. Hah!" She began to make her way down the road, much to the group's relief. "Hey, when the tournament starts next week, look out for Kira, the sadist sneasel! Not to be confused with the other sneasel in the tournament. There's two. Kira, the sadist sneasel! Keep in mind." She continued rambling until she approached a corner, where she stopped and took one last look at the pokémon. "Weaklings!" she yelled contemptuously before disappearing around the corner.

At first, the group was silent. Then Kai broke the silence with a laugh. All was silent again.

"...What the hell?" Lily looked around at the others with a look of both disgust and confusion on her face. "Who does she think she is?"

"The sadist sneasel, apparently."

"Well look, Lilynette." Cereus leaned forward to get a better look at the absol. "For something like this, this tournament, you can't expect all who enter to be nice and friendly." He ran his claws along his other arm's trailing growths, sprucing them absentmindedly. "Some pokémon volunteer to join just for the sake of killing."

"Yeah, I am aware," Lily replied glumly.

"Her and the lucario," Kai spoke up, "both seem a little arrogant."

"Let's hope they die quickly."

"Speaking of the lucario, where is Shiro?" Kai looked around the street. "And Imara too? And... Cinder."

"Frankly, I don't think Shiro and Imara like us very much," Aztec stated softly. The others considered it for a moment. The zangoose _did _seem a little harsh, but that was supposedly a typical faculty that came with being independent. The blaziken seemed more amiable, but if someone didn't agree with her on something, she'd probably have a fit.

Lily went back to talking with the ninetales. "So did Roy, like, adopt you or something?"

Aster shook her head. "Is that Kaiser's trainer's name? No, I'm with Roy's friend, Elliot."

"That's cool. I'm glad you have a good trainer," Lily said, feigning a smile and trying to hide her envy towards the ninetales. "If you don't mind me asking, how'd he catch you?"

"Why _would _I mind?" Aster raised a brow. "Actually, he didn't catch me. He doesn't have my pokéball. It was left at the black market."

"Oh yeah, you told me about how you escaped. Wait, how _did _you escape?" Lily asked, leaning in closer with curiosity.

Aster shuddered slightly. The question seemed to disconcert her and bring back bad memories. She fell into an unresponsive, trance-like state. "All those pokémon," she breathed hoarsely. "Touching the metal bars... Running. Dying." She looked down at the absol apathetically. "Well," she started, her composure miraculously regained, "I was in a cage up for sale, and these Pokémon Activist people came out of nowhere and tried to free the pokémon. I and some others were freed. This group calls themselves the People for the Ethical Treatment of Pokémon. I heard they're trying to stop the Biathlon now. They're trying to get some law passed that _officially _prohibits all to-the-death pokémon battles."

Lily lightened up. "I've never heard of that, but that's good!"

_~4:30 PM_

Julie had stopped by Coscrown's flat to drop off Cinder and take Coscrown out for a drink, giving Cinder and Kai time to get to know each other. They sat on the couch which they had moved to face the windowed wall. The sun was setting at that time, and luckily there was an ideally dearth amount of clouds. The couple clouds that _did _spot the sky didn't ruin the picture, as they were hued orange from the sun and they kind of added to the beauty.

"You know, Cinder," Kai began, "I'll be honest. At first I didn't like you that much—"

"You mean you like me now!?" The scizor practically jumped out of her seat.

"No," Kai scoffed. "Not like that."

"Oh. Well I don't like you like that either." Cinder pouted.

"Anyway... We have quite a lot in common though. Like, tell me about how you were born on Fire Island."

Cinder thought for a moment. A speckle of light, produced from the setting sun, bounced off her shoulder's shell and danced along the wall, like she was mirror ball. "Well, I was hatched there. And I had some parents."

Kai stared blankly at Cinder. What an obscure answer... He decided to start off himself. "Well, _I _was hatched in Cherry Grove. My father, who took off much before I was born, was a heracross. My mother was a scizor."

Cinder stared at Kai incredulously. "No way," she gasped. "Same here..."

At first, Kai stared back emotionlessly, trying to register why she was so shocked. Then, he grew horrified. "...What?"

Cinder broke into laughter. "Just kidding! I was born on the other side of the Island."

Kai breathed a sigh of relief.

"Wouldn't that be weird though, huh? Incest!"

The scyther quietly nodded. Silence followed. "Incest!" he blurted out. "Who said anything about sex in the first place?"

Cinder laughed. Kai glared at her.

More silence passed between the two as they watched the sun fall. Cinder slowly lifted her claw and moved it through the air, where it eventually rested on the middle of Kai's scythe. He stared at her claw out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't attempt to move or scold her.

Days passed, days of which they both spent with each other. Kai was amazed at how his opinion of one who he used to hate could change so dramatically and so quickly. At one point, he found himself balled up on his bed, distressed, asking himself how he could let something like _that _happen.

How could he have fallen for her so easily? It was the damn similarities they shared. Not only were they the same species, technically, but they also talked nonstop with each other about science mostly pertaining to the weather or the biology of the Bug-type.

'She is annoying,' he told himself. 'She is just a fan desperate to get with me,' he tried forcing himself to believe. It was all in vain, though.

Finally, he gave up. He figured that, because he would most likely die during the tournament, he might as well spend the last moments of his life happily. So one day, when Cinder was, once again, attempting to get in closer contact with Kai, he let her. She leaned against him, and he put his scythe around her.

Cinder, somewhat surprised, looked up to Kai with beckoning eyes. Could she take this further? She moved her head closer to his. Kai cringed slightly, but, knowing it was pointless trying to fight against her, he responded by moving his head closer to hers.

The gap between them diminished until air could no longer pass through. They interlocked their beaks, Kai softly biting down on Cinder's lower mandible, as Cinder did the same with Kai's upper.

The sunset was particularly beautiful that day.


	15. For Tomorrow

**∴ xv ∴  
For Tomorrow**

_~6:00 PM, Saturday_

Two days before the beginning of the Biathlon. All the human contestants were gnawing their nails off at this point. As for the fighters – most of them, living their final days under perpetual stress and anxiety, had mentally left their bodies as an empty carcass, rid of all emotion except for their anxiousness. In other words, most of the fighters had already departed.

Kai, trying to steer clear of all the negative thoughts that could interfere with his fighting, kept a positive mind in hopes that he wouldn't go insane before the tournament. He walked abreast of Lily, who looked here and there in excitement as snow gradually accumulated atop the pavements. She looked up to Kai smugly, as if to say, 'I told you it'd snow'.

Kai glowered at her, his beaks rapidly chattering together. "C-can't... Poikilo-... thermic..." he stuttered.

"Well this weather isn't good for a cold-blood like you," Lily stated, now concerned.

Kai responded by rolling his eyes. "You think? I can't feel... my... wings." The translucent protrusions on his back made attempt after attempt to buzz and warm themselves, but Kai couldn't even get a single vibration from them. He turned abruptly to the absol, causing a shoulder-full of snow to slide off and land on her. "I need to get home."

Lily shook the snow off and sighed. They had left the main, lighted streets and were traversing down a less-frequented road. "Then I'm off, back to Staten Island. See you... at the Biathlon, I guess. Provided it isn't cancelled!"

Kai stared at the absol. His eyes had glazed over slightly, but Lily wouldn't have been able to see; it was too dark. "The snow will not cancel the Biathlon," he said solemnly. "But, you should enjoy its beauty while you can." He began to continue down the street, but he saw something that stopped him. A dark figure stood, meters away. It leapt back as it became aware that its silhouette was visible to Kai. Kai took a step back and was silent.

Lily glared into the darkness. Nothing stirred. She allowed her adept eyes to adjust to the darkness, as did Kai. Once the silhouette was distinguishable from the rest of the abyssal background, Lily observed that the figure was a large bipedal. A menacing, large bipedal. She nudged Kai's leg, urging him to retreat. The gesture remained unheeded. Kai narrowed his eyes.

Suddenly, the figure burst from the shadows and lashed at Kai. The scyther simply swatted the assailant backwards and continued to stand still.

Lily was behind Kai, skipping in circles in panic. "We need to go!" she cried, before bounding off up the street.

Kai slowly backed up. In the darkness, he saw the soft reflections of distant lights off a perturbingly sharp plethora of claws. He shivered in fear, but nonetheless he still managed to swiped at the air with his scythes, as if to scare off the figure. When the figure continued to stare at Kai, seemingly unfazed by his assertion, Kai decided to creep backwards until he was a good distance away from the figure. He then turned around and headed up the street, all the while keeping a wary eye behind him.

The shadow figure sighed. "Of course that didn't work. Those two are too sharp. Too sharp!" The figure let out an exasperated groan. "No matter. I've already, in a sense, taken care of Kaiser. I'll just have to find someone weaker." The beast roamed the roads until it spotted a snorunt playfully digging a hole in the snowbank. It spied on the snorunt from across the street.

The pokémon leapt out of the snow and was suddenly overcome with sorrow. "I'm gonna miss the snow," it mused plaintively.

After looking the snorunt over more thoroughly, the figure concluded it _was _in the Biathlon. 'Pokémon really shouldn't enter the tournament unless they're fully evolved.' It grinned wickedly and snuck over until it stood behind the unknowing Snow Hat. In one fluid motion, the figure drove both its claws into the snorunt's back and twisted. The triangle yelped and let out a little gurgling noise, before quieting down. The figure lifted the snorunt into the air. Its feet twitched a little bit. Both the figure's claws wiggled slightly inside the body. Then the figure promptly separated its two clawed paws, as well as the two halves of the body. Now sloppily torn in two, the snorunt lay lifeless on the snowbank, painting the snow red.

The figure dug its claws into a patch of white snow to clean them off. "Four to go," it murmured.

_~7:00 PM, Sunday  
_"What!" yelled the judge. "How can five of the contestants go missing during just one night?"

The fat man's smaller associate shrugged and scratched his forehead. "I don't know. I don't know! But listen, we might have to cancel..."

"You know how many people I got up my ass trying to make me cancel?" the judge spat. "These damn PETP bastards all over the place, and now we're down five pokémon. Son of a bitch!" He brought out his iPod from his pocket and frantically twirled his thumb about the dial. When he accessed its calculator, he began punching in numbers. "Ten thousand divided by forty is two-fifty, okay? Now ten thousand by thirty-five is... two-eight-five point seven-one-four... Shit. No one's got time for that!" His face was growing red as a tomato, which seemed to scare the associate.

The associate suddenly gasped. "Remember that lucario who wanted to join but we didn't let her?"

The judged squinted at the small man. "We have a lucario. What do you mean?"

"No, the _female _lucario." He fumbled with his clipboard, going page through page. "We've got a Maximilian, and then there's the female who wants in."

"Okay, well..." The judge punched in _10,000 divided by 36_. He wasn't pleased with the result.

"But if there's one extra pokémon that wants to join, then there could be more." He flipped to a different page in the clipboard with a diagram of the tournament's brackets. "I just realized something," he said, concerned. "If we have forty fighters in the tournament, then some will have to fight more battles than others."

"Yeah? So what?"

"Isn't that unfair? I remember when we used to have sixteen fighters and the brackets were a whole lot simpler."

"Yeah, well times are tougher now. Besides, no one wants to pay over six hundred dollars if they lose. The more people, the less money they'd have to compensate if they lose. But we're getting sidetracked. We need to find four more fighters before tomorrow. And if we can't—which we won't, I know it—then people will just have to deal with some major changes. We're _not _closing the Biathlon. Not for no dropouts, no Pokémon Activists, and no damn snow!"

The associate scratched his head. "Right. It'd be a miracle if four competitors came out of nowhere."

And sure enough, four competitors _did _come out of nowhere. Impossible, it seemed, but if one looked at how poor everyone was at that time, then the fact that four appeared suddenly seemed plausible. Coincidentally, all four were without a trainer... Thus making that year's Biathlon break the record for number of consisting independent fighters.

_~8:00 PM_

Julie sat across from Coscrown in his apartment. Unfortunately for Kai, Cinder wasn't around at that time, so Kai sat alone in his room and listened to his entran and Julie talk.

"Oh, poor Kai," said Julie. "He has to fight all his friends tomorrow. And Cinder, too." She sighed and looked down at the table.

"I feel so ashamed," Coscrown stated.

Before he could continue, Julie interrupted, saying, "Because you force your best friend to fight?"

Coscrown raised his hands in the air angrily. "Yes, sure! Hey, totally disregard the fact that I'm broke as Hell and extremely desperate!"

Julie laughed. "I understand, Roy. Maybe others don't, but I do. Kai's a good fighter, I got to hand it to you. Had you any other pokémon, you probably wouldn't be where you are today: successful on the streets."

"Yep. I'm climbing the corporate ladder!"

"Well, I don't mean you're successful like _that_." Julie grinned at Coscrown eagerly and rested her head in her hands. "Did you get the iPod?" she asked excitedly.

Coscrown looked around his apartment and then looked at Julie questioningly. "Are you serious?"

"Hm? What are you saving money for then?"

Kai leaned against the wall, trying to hear better. On the other side, the two were silent for a moment. Then, his trainer muttered something incomprehensible, which was followed by a gleeful squeal from the woman. 'What'd he say?' Kai thought to himself.

"That's wonderful, Roy!" Julie clasped her hands together with joy. "I wish the best of luck to you with that."

Coscrown chuckled, feeling slightly embarrassed. "Well, I need nearly ten grand to afford that, meaning I need to win the Biathlon."

"...Oh," was all Julie said. She brushed a lone strand of hair from her face. She nodded slowly. "I'm saving money for Broadway," she whispered.

"What do you mean?"

"I want to be an actress." She seemed to have lost all energy and boisterousness in her voice.

"Oh, you're an actress, huh?"

"No. I'm bad at acting." She broke into hysterics, taking Coscrown by surprise. "But I'll get in there. I'm still a lot better than who's already there."

Coscrown leaned back in his chair, noticeably freaked out and unsettled.

* * *

**Temporary Note: This story is going to be wrapped up pretty soon. From here until the end, things are going to start getting exciting. **


End file.
